Peace&Harmony said...
I'm on week 2 of Prednisone and not quite in remission yet, but my doc's instructions schedule me to taper starting this Saturday. Just have some blood and mucus and I know Pred interfeers with my blood clotting ability and causing bruises to take longer to heal.
So after you reached remission how long did you wait before tapering?
Hi P&H,
I think we ought to define 'remission.'
When I was young, the prednisone bit in 3 to 4 days, all symptoms of UC gone - now it takes few days longer. Despite the definition of remission being the absence of UC symptoms, I'm not in real remission in 4 days after starting the prednisone regimen, because if I quit the med, the symptoms appear withing hours.
Prednisone is a medicine that needs a tapering, usually long, but some doc prefer very short and fast.
Years back the GI docs started with 60 or even 80 mg, and the tapering was 10 mg per week until we reached 20 mg and went for 5 mg per week. Now the 40 mg initial dose seems to be in vogue. It's not working for me, though.
The most critical part commonly is around the 10 mg. The taper must go very slowly from then on. For example: 10, 7.5, 5, 2.5, etc. Some docs prefer to keep you on every dose for a week, others for two weeks. I think notsosicklygirl once mentioned that her taper decreased by 1 mg at time.
We are all different and need our individual weaning off from prednisone.
I consider myself being in remission when all the symptons of UC are gone and I'm only taking the maintenance meds for a long period of time. I've had very long remissions when I did not take any meds.
We all would love to have a week-only-prednisone regimen, but unfortunately that is not reality.
My 2 cents: No tapering until the med works - really works.
Good Luck to you.