Pred: can you "burst" while tapering?

Spiders, this might be a question you need to run by your doctors, as the answer (I feel) very much depends on how long you've been sick, how long you've been using steroids, and what condition your bones, eyes and other important organs are in.

As an example, my bones are now in very poor shape after sitting on very high doses of steroids for most of the last 16 years, so the docs generally force me to endure moderate and sometimes severe symptoms, rather than increasing the steroid dose and giving me some relief. I think their reasoning is that the consequences of bone loss may be worse than the consequences of severe Crohn's.... I don't know.

In other words, they might let you do a short burst as you're "only" three and a half years into your treatment... but I think it's courteous just to check, anyway.

Ivy.

I've never heard of bursting but would be interested to hear what your doctor says patientspiders... I am tapering at the moment and went back up to 15mg today from 10mg as I was really suffering. I'm going to try and taper back down as standard after a week.

I tapered to zero recently after taking 32 mg for almost a year. It wasn't easy, but I managed to keep things under control by going back to previous dose if I felt worse when tapering down. The key is to listen to what your body is telling you, and to act on it immediately. Don't wait for it to get worse, just take a step back and try tapering again in a week or two. That said, I can tell you that, for me, even going from 4 mg to zero was a battle. I ended up going from 4 to 2, to 1 to 1 every other day, and finally zero. I don't think "bursts" are a good idea at all. It will prolong your taper, and could lead to steroid dependency. The body shouldn't receive mixed signals. The point is to slowly taper so the adrenal gland picks up the slack and starts producing cortisol again. If you "burst" these signals get confused...