Is this a correct assumtion?
If you are taking Prednisone along with your DMARDS and start tapering down, if you start getting pain or swelling then the DMARDS you are taking are probably not working? Given that you have given the DMARDS the time to work?
I'm not sure. I've been asking myself the same question. I know that when I was one MTX and got down to 12.5, my rheumy said that showed the MTX was doing something......(I started on 20mg pred. the drop to 15 wasn't bad but 15 to 12.5 I was in agony). But he took me off it and started me on sulfasalazine, upping the pred to 15mg to cover the change over. I dropped from 15mg to 12.5 and then to 10mg pred. quite well when I had been on sulf. for about 6 weeks. But now, well, dropping to 9mg caused another flare everywhere.
I taper very slowly, normally doing alternate days at each dose (so 15 one day, 12.5 the next etc) for about 2 weeks before dropping to the lower. The I stay on that for at least 2 weeks.
*shrugs* If you find the answer, please let me know?!
Yes and no.
Yes it could mean that the other medications are not adequate. It means you may have to increase a dose or add another medication
and
No in that it may be the body simply reacting to the pred withdrawal and you may need to slow down the taper
The best person to ask in your particular situation is your doctor
Hi, this is the story of my life and I'm bored to death with worrying about this prednisone stuff! I've tried to go from 5 and less ...that was a disaster, so now back up to 10 and waiting for either another drug besides remicade (which I don't think is working) to be selected by my doctor. Honestly, this is such a drag. The nurse yesterday, even suggested I might try 15 mgs...NO!, I'm trying to get off not on more. WE all need so much support, help, etc. with this sorting out drugs. I'm praying that they come up with a good solution as I don't want to be stiff, tired, and swollen anymore. Good luck to you too, love, sarahI hate to be a poop...but pred works the best of all for me. Nothing comes close to it.
But I really don't want to trade years off my life and get other serious diseases like diabeties. So I do with out except for the occasional pred pack for serious flares.
I want them to find a safe pred.
I keep trying to get off pred, but last time I only lasted a couple of months without it before RD put me back on it. I cannot take much of anything else in combination with Humira. So, it is only pred & Humira for now. I am going to talk to my RD next week about getting off my 5mg of pred and ask for something else for swelling, as I have a lot of swelling even being on pred.
I agree with buckeye's post on this. We have to remember that we need the extra oomph from the pred since our bodies do not produce enough corticosteroids on it's own. So, when we take away that extra oomph our bodies tend to protest that.
I go back to the rheumy on the 5th of June and this was one of the questions I was going to ask him. He said on my last visit that if this taper I am currently on doesn't do the job we are going to talk about my meds. But I think he will just do an increase of the mtx or put me on humira every week. The only other biologic my insurance covers is enbrel so remicade or orencia is out of the question for me. I have been doing pretty well tho. I really want off my maintenence dose of 5mg tho.
Well there is quality of life to consider too. Who wants to live to 90 in abject misery, when pred makes living life pretty decent? The low doses like 5mgs are not nearly as dangerous as the higher doses. Some people do OK for many many years with little trouble. (There are 90 year old smokers!)
Try not to worry too much.
reading these messages i never knew so many people takin predisinole, i took it years ago and was fine with it until the doc dropped the dosage then all the symptoms returned.I dont think that it is available in the UK anymore for some reason,also i have never heard of enbrel,remicade or orencia, could someone give me some info on these?
marcelle
I did not know how much the pred was masking symptoms until I finally got to go back to an RD last year after being without insurance and just taking 5mg of pred so I could last until I got to see an RD. I had a knee that looked like a grapefruit for months, but it did not hurt until the pred started to wear off. After going to the RD finally I had inflammation in my muscles, so my RD took me off the pred and gave me a dose pak to tapper me down and put me on Humira. I done good for 2 months without the pred. The Humira worked the same day I took it and I felt good, better than I had for the 6 months prior with only 5-10 mg of pred. I then had to be put back on the pred a couple of months later because I could not take MTX, like he hoped I could. I will take pred for as long as I need to. I just do not feel the 5mg or even the 10mg of pred I have been on lately is working like it use to. Which that is how I was feeling last year when I got took off for a couple of months. I do not want to go up to 15mg or anything over 10mg, because I tend to be mean and have what my hubby calls "attitude" and I just get annoyed rather quickly.
Man H2o...your symptoms sound just awful. I am so sorry to here that you can't get off the Pred or else...I will keep you in my prayers.
Ok, here is my question to all of you. Why have your doctors not done the
alternate day dosing to give your adrenal glands a day to rest? I'm just
curious about this. The PDR recommends that this is what should happen.
Why are doctors not doing this? Could it be that prednisone creates many
more medical problems for people, giving them many more reasons to come
back time and time again, causing them to take more and more medications
to treat all the side effects? I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory but I
don't trust this med one bit.
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