First Prednisone Taper

Advice: taper by 5 mg not by 10.
How are you feeling? How are your stools and BMs. How long have you been on the 40.

Also. Try to forget your on a lower dose it works for me that way.

I agree with ^. I am tapering too. Was on 40 for 2 weeks, 60 for 4 days and 50 for past 2 days. Doc wanted me to go to from 60 to 40, but I said "50" for a few days and he said ok. He said the taper from 40 down needs to be smaller due to the %s....so now, I'll go down by 5 when I hit 40. I got a pill cutter, and that helps a lot.

So, how long to you give each "new dose"? I'm waiting for bloodwork to see if I can start Imuran asap. I assume I'll be on the pred while that "kicks in"....but not sure what dose.

Tommy, I've been reading pred threads. Most people say the first few days on lower dose can be a bit problematic, but that the body adjusts. Knowing that, I will be more patient. If I see a bit of blood, I will not freak out but look at the bigger picture..I am slowly getting better. This pred is tough, but it is working. You just have to know what you can take . Good luck...I'll follow this thread!

~Cita

Cita said...
This pred is tough, but it is working. You just have to know what you can take . Good luck...I'll follow this thread!

~Cita

Thanks Cita. Hoping that I can soldier through. This week has been hell, so any amount of relief will be welcomed.

I'm tapering prednisone for the first time as well. I can't give you advice because I don't have experience to do that, but I can tell you how it's going for me.

I started 40 mg of pred on Oct 31, so just over a month ago. Today, Dec 2, I am at 15 mg.

My original prescribing doctor (in emerg) wanted me to do the 40mg for a week and quit cold turkey but after asking 'the experts' on this forum, I went to my GP and he agreed I should taper. Then I went to my GI (he was on holidays, so that's why I didn't get to see him in the first place), he is having me taper even slower. Once I got to 20mg, I'm going down 5mg per week.

My flare is slowly improving. I am having some formed stools, urgency is decreasing and I'm having the occasional BM with no blood. My BMs occur mostly in the first three hours in the morning which was my 'normal' before my big flare.

I also want to mention that I've never had more than three weeks without blood in my stool so my UC is not well controlled at all yet. This flare that I'm hopefully getting out of was a miserable 25+ bloody BMs a day, so, the improvement is huge for me.

So, not sure if that's helpful, it's just what I'm experiencing at the moment. Good luck!

     Never, ever, quit prednisone cold turkey, especially if you have been taking it for at least a week.  I had a friend who did that when she suffered with Crohn's and she developed Addison's Disease.  After being diagnosed with Addison's she had to stay on prednisone the rest of her life, which was short.  She passed at age 58.

Christine1946 said...
Never, ever, quit prednisone cold turkey, especially if you have been taking it for at least a week. I had a friend who did that when she suffered with Crohn's and she developed Addison's Disease. After being diagnosed with Addison's she had to stay on prednisone the rest of her life, which was short. She passed at age 58.

No way in hell I would. I've been scared to death of the stuff ever since I was diagnosed and I did tons of research on it after; I know the dangers! I'm really scared of most of the uc medications, the 5asa being the small exception. If I weren't in the condition I was in at the time of my being hospitalized, I would have probably declined or argued hard about starting it.

I just found a good doctor who, so far, has been taking the best care of me and I want to try to be as compliant as I can - to an extent of course.

So far I can't really tell much of a difference. Things seem about the same, although I am a bit less emotional. Which is awesome in itself.

I also came off flagyl the same day so there could also be changes occurring with that as well. Dr. appointment tomorrow and I'm praying that I am c. Diff free!

You can take a look at how my GI tapered me in my signature. For me, the first 2 days after dropping were not great - general brain fog and fatigue for me, and I needed a 20 minute nap those days.

What I've learned is that what is really important is the UC symptoms. If any of them start to come back - blood, especially, stop and call your doc.

I'm actually going from 5 to 0 today. I asked my GI about going to 2.5, and he said if I experience ANY UC symptoms, any at all, I'm to call him immediately, and likely go back to 5. He said 5 to 0 for me is ok because I have tolerated all of the other taper steps so well.

The other thing I've learned is that it is SO dependent on the person. Listen to what your symptoms tell you and consult with your doc accordingly. And congrats on starting to taper off that stuff!

Yeah, scum1, you've got a great understanding of how the taper works. That drop to 10 mg or 7.5 mg is a doozy, where the rubber meets the road in terms of your own healing processes taking over for the prednisone. I'm glad the Imuran is helping

I myself gave Asacol a second try. I managed to get off pred on 12 asacol and my doctor pronounced me in remission a month later and told me to drop my asacol to 6. I reflared within two weeks and had to start back at 40. He wanted me to go to 6mp/Imuran saying I couldn't maintain on Asacol. But with the encouragement of this board and a new GI, I asked for mesalamine (Asacol) enemas and mesalamine (Asacol) suppositories on the second taper . With all that mesalamine being thrown at the problem, I was able to get off pred and maintain on a much lower dose of mesalamine orals and enemas. However, because I had already been on pred five months, it took me another year to get off of it, because the longer you are on pred, the longer you should stay on it, I didn't have any UC symptoms 3 months into my second flare.

Don't rush too much. Things get delicate below 10 mg.