Heres the question, Ive been taking 15mg of mTX now for 4 weeks,along with 5 mg prednisone, I feel great, and have been able to almost eliminate the ibuprofen-BUT, I dont see the RD for another month and he said that he would allow me to wean off the pred. after a month on the MTX dependent on how I feel, For those of you who have gone down a similar path, were you able to get off the pred. or does the pain come Flaring back at you, or does the MTX hold its own with it? Very interested in feedback as I am curious if I can get off the pred successfully!
PS, I have experienced no side effects from any of the meds., no weight gain, i havent gone bald, dont know if that will help in the replies!
I wish I could say it worked for me but I can only get down to 7mg of pred before I have to kick it back up. I have been on the pred for 3 yrs now because I am allergic to all of the other shot/iv treatments. I am on the waiting list for Orencia so I still have hope of relief. Good Luck--this is a great place if you need a pickme up.
You might want to read all the comments from the posting, Weaning Prednisone -- help, on May 27th. There was a lot of good advice from several people there.
Basically, if you can get the medicine in 1 mg pills and go down that way, that seems to work. You are lucky to be only at 5 mg. Almost everyone else is struggling with getting down from higher doses. That is very promising.
Might be worth a call to see what you Rheumy has in mind as far as tapering off.
I've been off of prednisone for quite some time now...at least 10 years I think. I was on it for about 3 years. Once the mtx was doing it's job (and I waited for a while to make sure) then I started weaning off the prednisone. I've had to increase the mtx over the years and am now at 25mg and my doctor doesn't want me to go any higher. My doctor also added other meds, plus we're thinking about adding one more. I still have flares but I get through them with pain medication.
Good luck!
I was diagnosed with moderately severe RA in October 2005. I was on 20mg of prednisone a day and 12.5 mg of MTX a week. I took this for 3 months and had continual flares. I added Enbril in January...went down to 10 mg a week of MTX and was eventually weaned off the Prednisone in March. I haven't had a flare in months.
I think it is such an individual journey. Everyone responds to medication differently. I find that the less stimulants I use (caffeine, alcohol, sugar, processed foods) the better my medication works. I have definitely followed a holistic path as I became sick. I find that the combination of Eastern and Western medicine works best for me.
I must say...I feel much better being off the Prednisone. Good luck to you!
I am presently weaning down from 15. I am also on MTX and am waiting for it take effect. I am down to 10mg of the pred, and I am experimenting with weaning. I am finding that splitting my dose helps, for example, I take 7.5 in the a.m. and 2.5 in the p.m. When I did it all in one shot, it didn't last long enough.