Stopping Prednisone... | Arthritis Information

Hi everyone...

I am so glad I have found this site...it has given me a lot of helpful info. Thank you for sharing your illness with others.

My question is:

I have had flu like symptoms for over 2 months with aching in ALL joints. Could barely move my hands in the morning and would have tingling and numbness in them as well. Dr said neg for RA & Lupus on blood work but inflammation up. Have family history with both and he put me on Prednisone for 5 days @ 20mg 3 times daily. Has helped, not aching as bad. Used last of it yesterday and am concerned on how I will begin to feel as it wears off.

Thanks for your help!

Blessed,

Total of 60mg of pred. daily is rather high, but ok for short time. What concerns me is that you have not been tapered off, just stopped suddenly. I've only had 'pred packs" - 5 days at, say, 15mg, 5 at 10, 5 at 5; and even then, coming off the stuff one feels the lack of energy for a while.

Someone else here might have had the sort time of high dosage so could advise you better.

You can test sero neg. for RA and still have it :( - I was 'fortunate' to test positive so was given meds straight away.

If problems persist, ask to be ref. to a rheumatologist.

Lorraine

I agree that sudden stop of such a high dose is worrisome. You should be tapered off of pred slowly.

Rh factor and ANA factor is just only one diagnostic tool in diagnosing RA. RD's also look at disease process and your physical appearance for any swelling or inflammation. They also take into account morning stiffness and other things. When you see your RD you should be filling out a DAS (Disease Activity Sheet) and that also gives your RD a fair insight of your disease process and how you are doing. Many people are sero negative (no rh factor showing in blood work) yet have a raging case of RA. So keep on pushing there for a firm diagnosis!!

I don't think I've ever heard of getting such a blast of prednisone for 5 days and then just stopping. Even though 5 days is such a short period of time, I think patients are tapered off for a recommended period of time. My guess would be that you'll notice a return of the inflammation and hopefully I'm wrong about that.

My PC just made me an appt with Rd for May 10th. Stooped prednisone yesterday and I am starting to get the stiffness, aching, and tingling in my hands and aches in my elbows, shoulders and feet...

Emailed my PC about what I am to take in the meantime.

Does the pain in your joints sometimes radiate into the bone and just ache?

Don't think so but sometimes the pain is so bad, it certainly feels like it's in your bones. Are you taking anything else for the inflammation?Not on anything else right now. Something over the counter such as ibuprofen should help with the inflammation causing your pain but I'd stay on your PC until they can advise you what to take in the meantime. Ibuprofen might upset your tummy so don't go overboard on it.

N one likes to be on pred long term but unfortunately some of us are. Maybe talk to PCP about starting the pred again at like a 25mg dose and tapering slowly from there. I went from 25mg down to a maintenance dose of 5mg and doing well there. The sudden stopping of the pred is weird and I had never heard of it being done that way either.

Especially such a high dose. Since you are newer I will explain why us with RA need the pred so often. I read an article explaining that people with RA do not produce enough corticosteroids for themselves on their own. Those help with the control of inflammation. But since we don't produce enough naturally, we need that boost we get from the pills then the slow taper off so we don't shock our systems suddenly by not having that steroid floating around in the old system. Hoped that helped understand why we need the pred and why we shouldn't suddenly stop it.

With being on such a high dose, and suddenly stoping like that - PLEASE be on the lookout for the following symptoms, or anything even close to them:

Lazy eye
Severe Migranes(blinding/nausea/etc)
Blindness - even temporary, such as after standing up quickly
Severe Nightmares
Severe Depression
Halucinations
Severe muscle cramps (like charley horses, only much worse)
Shortness of breath
Chest Pains
Unusual tiredness
Fainting

My b/f was put on VERY high doses of pred during a hospital stay, and they very quickly took him off, without a taper - he suffered ALL of these, and then some. No one bothered to tell us why, or what to do about it. We ended up taking him to a different hospital, where they were HORRIFIED that they stoped his pred so quickly. Please, if you have ANY strange symptoms, don't let it go. I don't mean to freak you out, I just know how horrible it was waiting, and just not knowing what to do, or what was going on. You may come out with none of these, that would be GREAT. But I'd rather you know the possibilities! *hugs*