Re: Prednisone Reduction Question

[Guest guest]

,

I would stay where you are and not reduce tomorrow. Wait until your body is

stable on that dose and every dose until you are comfortable with it. As long

as the pain you are having now is not bothering you, no need to increase it.

~Rainy Sue who is on 10 MG of Prednisone..

> Hi Everybody.

>

> As some of you may know I am in the process of reducing my Prednisone

> dosage. I was told by the rheumatologist to reduce by one milligram every

> two weeks. At some point, he said, everything that hurt before will come

> back. At that point, I am to increase the dose by 4 milligrams and then

> slowly start reducing it again but not so low as the point where it all

> started to swell and hurt. When he told me this last month I was at seven

> milligrams and felt pretty good.

>

> So now I am down to five milligrams and tomorrow I am to reduce it to

> four. Problem is, what do you all think he meant by it all coming back? I

> thought I would wake up one morning and EVERYTHING would be swollen and

> painful again, like before I started taking the Prednisone back in

> October. However, it seems that it is all coming back s-l-o-w-l-y. Right

> now I have pain and swelling everywhere I did before EXCEPT my

> knees. Also, the pain and swelling is not as bad as it was originally. So

> here is my question: Is this the point he meant to increase the dosage, or

> should I wait until I am in really bad shape and my knees get affected,

> too? I am a bit concerned as I fear the pericarditis might get worse if I

> wait too long.

>

> Any suggestions?

>

> Thanks,

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

: When in doubt call your dr. just to be on the safe side. You are

fortunate he is willing to get you off it. I wish my dr would, I'm currently

on 15 mgs. and have been for several years only having to increase sometimes

up to 60 mg. with an acute flare up. I hate the side effects of the weight

gain and moon face.

jan

[Guest guest]

At 04:12 AM 2/1/01, you wrote:

>I'm glad you got some benefit from it and hope you keep the weight

>after getting off the prednisone. Have you had any luck with your job

>hunt?

>a

Hi a,

As far as the weight goes I probably shouldn't keep it. I am only about

five foot seven and used to have a stocky build. I was somewhere about

185-195 a couple years back and then slowly began to lose weight. I

thought it was because I had been reducing the amount of beer I had been

drinking as it seemed I was losing my taste for it. Then I found out I had

the Type-2 diabetes and doctor said I should weigh something like 140, if I

recall. I told him that was too thin and I seemed to hover around 150-155

after somewhat changing my diet due to the diabetes. This is what I

weighed in high school after I lost my adolescent baby fat and started to

work out a little bit. When I went into the hospital at the end of last

October, I weighed 150. Then started Prednisone and insulin and now am up

to around 174. Excess weight is bad for a diabetic and I noticed today I

couldn't snap my jeans!

As far as the job thing, I haven't done anything along those lines yet

until I see where I end up with medication and how I end up doing physically.

And on the Prednisone reduction, a couple of people on this list convinced

me that maybe my body needs more time to adjust to the lower dosage,

currently at 5 mg. Prior to that, my thinking was since most symptoms were

coming back, why bother to reduce it to 4 mg. as it would only get worse

anyway. So I decided to give the 5 mg one more week and see how that

goes. I am currently playing phone tag with my rheumatologist. He

actually called ME yesterday afternoon for something but I was out buying

my wife a birthday present. I called him back a little while ago but was

informed he was out of the office until 1:30. Well I have a physical

therapy appointment at 1:15! And so it goes...

/Celine Kossart

kozys@...

[Guest guest]

>TinyDancer525@... asked:

>

>

>...what was your highest dose of Prednisone and how long have you been

>on it??

Started on 60 milligrams October 21 and am currently down to 5 milligrams.

/Celine Kossart

kozys@...

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I finally got back to the rheumatologist and he asked how I was doing. I

told him everything was slowly coming back and that I was at 5 mg. of the

Prednisone. He said he expected it to and told me to stay at 5 mg, don't

reduce it anymore, until he sees me on the 27th.

He said the reason he called was to ask me if I was still interested in

participating in a clinical study they were planning. I said sure, and

asked him to send me some info in writing so I would have all the info and

could run it past my insurance company as I have heard some people lost

their medical insurance after participating in such studies. He said their

would be no problems with the insurance. I don' really have any details

yet so we will see. He said a clinical research nurse will call me in a

few days with a bunch of questions.

Can any of you think of any problems or questions I should be asking

connected with being involved in a clinical study?

Thanks...

/Celine Kossart

kozys@...