increasing perdnisone?

I know how travel takes it out of you - you might just really need the rest. So my advice? CRASH! Try not to increase the Prednisone, unless you absolutely have NO alternative. CRASH LIKE A FULL-O-GARBAGE DUMPSTER FALLING FROM THE TOP OF A 4 STORY BUILDING. If you're not better then, then try the increase.

(((((((Hippie))))))) I'm so sorry you are still spiraling. I know this is too little, too late . . . but when we are tapering (or taking high doses of pred) we really need to continue the rest vs. activity pacing that we do. Christmas or not, the tough decisions really come before the flare. I'm so sorry you are having a hard time tapering. It would seem that BIG rest and a pred burst might be in order . . . something like using the dose pack and then over a few days taper down to 10 and then continue to v-e-r-y gradually taper. I think you can interrupt your taper with a burst if you aren't on it too long. I bet Ginny and Lynwood (and some of the others would know more about this technique). I did similar to you, but with less consequences. Pushed through the holidays and pay for it afterward . . . DUH! It seems I always need to test how far I can push myself and its generally just a bit too much. Lynwood, if I remember right, has a post on "flare care" in the Lupus Resource topic. I hope you'll keep us posted . . . and I'm sending you a fresh hot pot of tea!! Blessings!

Hippi,

I know just what you are talking about. I, too, am trying to taper down again from my prednisone that I had to start back up with again last July. I was down to 5 mg a day right before Thanksgiving but I started to flare again and my rhuemy upped me to 10 mg a day for the entire Holiday period. She knows that I have out of town family in for Thanksgiving and that we travel to Ohio and sometimes florida for Christmas. I will start my taper down next week. I have to taper VERY slow in order to fool my body so I will do 9mg for a week and then eight for a week and so on.

I think Rosie gives some good advice about upping the pred AND resting A LOT and then start to taper down. One more week or so of a higher dose will not hurt you. My rhuemy trusts me to judge this for myself and it sounds like your rhuemy trusts you with this, too. I was surprised that my rhuemy was so aggressive this holiday season with the increased prednisone but it worked out really well for me. (I even went out for New Year's Eve last night but I am paying for that today!) This is the first holiday season in three years that I felt almost normal. I shocked my kids and my family! However, if I had to deal with no power for four days during all of this plus the travel and the holiday - YIKES. That would not be good. No wonder you are having trouble deciding! (We also had no power in our area from that storm but it was only for one very cold day - we were rather lucky that time.)

Anyway, hippi, I hope you will consider upping the prednisone for a short period. My prayers are with you!

Yes, I have to admit, I think you all are right. I think I may have caused my own flare-up (in September, which became quite serious, 9 day hosp. visit, now can only work part-time) by not increasing when I should have. I was also eager to taper.

Just to add to that - looking back at my own initial advice, I'm interested to see how I didn't learn from my own experience, just as the rest of you seem to have. And I paid the price! Now I'm back up to 30, though trying to taper by alternating days w/ 25. Need to speak with my rheumatologist, who I haven't seen since November, and who I don't have an app't with until Feb. He gets annoyed with me pretty easily, I feel, b/c I don't always understand him, (he has a super thick accent), and I ask a lot of questions and take time to take notes. He's saved my life a couple of times, but I wish he could give me better advice on how to RECOVER from the flare-up, and how to get off the prednisone without going too fast, getting sick. I've been on it since 2004, almost always at least 10.

Thanks for all the responses and advice. After I posted yesterday and read some responses, I took some time to really think things over and try to decide what would be the best thing for me to do. My joints were hurting so bad that they felt like they were going to explode and I was needing help from my husband to get up off the couch. I bit the bullet and took an extra 5mg of prednisone and within a few hours the pain was much more manageable and I didn' need to take any hydrocodone for a change. By early evening my fatigue was still pretty severe, but I know that's my body's way of telling me how much I need to rest. I think what I'll do is what a lot of you suggested which is to up my prednisone for 5-7 days and try to rest as much as possible. I'm thinking if I don't stay at a higher dose for too long it should be easier to taper back down. Now that I've upped my prednisone, I think it was definitely worth it. I've got a lot to do around home with lots of things to put away from the holidays, but I keep telling myself that most of it can wait and also that my hubby will be home on the weekend to help with it too. Thanks for the support.