more weaning off prednisone | Arthritis Information
Hi everyone, I am new here and I am sure you are all tired of questions about Prednisone. Here is my problem, I have been on Prednisone for more than 4 straight yrs. I went from 80 mg down to 8mg and have been maintaining at 8 mg until x-mas time when Dr. raised me to 17mg for the holidays. I went back down to 10mg after x-mas, I have seen a new rhuemmy and she wants me off completely in 2 months. I am on my 8th day of 7.5 mg and can feel the pain rising with the swelling. I have not been doing to badly and so far the withdrawl has been a piece of cake knowing that certain things are going to happen makes it easier to deal with. I am getting very cranky with things around me. I am hoping this get better. My question to any of you has anyone been on this long and have to get off of it so quickly???
Please write back!
pjohns- I don't have any experience with your problem...I hope there is someone else on the board that can help you.
Pats2- I have only been on prednisone since November 2007. I have tapered from 40 to 6 in that time. I began tapering in February and was told it was very important to take it slow as your adrenal glands need to get used to functioning on there own. I am surprised they are trying to get you from 7.5 to 0 in two weeks!
Once I hit 10 my taper was mandated to go even slower. I am allowed a 1 mg drop every 2-4 weeks depending on how I feel. I get disappointed but it seems like every other drop I do have to wait a full month before I'm ready due to achiness. I too feel a bit of depression and irritaion when I drop too. Luckily all problems level out if I ride it out.
Good luck-and maybe ask your doctor why the need to go to fast. My doctor says if I push it I'm just asking for a major flare....
I've been on Prednisone for 18 years now unfortunately. I could not imagine dropping from 7,5 mg to zero within such a short time. After 4 years, you can assume you have some level of adrenal insufficiency. I agree with wantobeRAfree. Go slow and small. I actually found when I decrease by a whole mg, I start feeling sick - fever, chills, achiness - I kept thinking it was viral till I noticed it always happened after a Prednisone drop. So, my goal is to decrease by 0.5 mg every 3 weeks. I have surgery in a few days so that will probably interfere with my schedule, but I am determined to get OFF this drug entirely this summer. My surgeon actually wanted me to "go off" my Prednisone for a few days pre-op. My rheumy just laughed and told me I would be dead before surgery if I stopped it cold. (My dose is 4.5 mg/day now). Not trying to scare you, just be cautious and good luck with it!
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