Prednisone question...

I thought my problems with prednisone would fade as I taper. Is it wrong to think that? When I was at 40 mg, I mostly dealt with restlessness and night sweats. Now I'm at 10 mg and it seems like I'm having more trouble than when I was at 40 mg. My joints hurt, my hands & wrists feel like I have carpal tunnel, my hand veins keep popping up (blood pressure is fine...I keep checking), my muscles ache and I'm super moody. I'm blaming it on the prednisone because I don't think entyvio does any of this. My brain isn't working right. I thought that might be entyvio, but since Garylouiseville pointed out prednisone does this, I'm thinking it's probably to blame. My reasoning skills are in the tank and my memory is a mess. I'm usually super sharp. It's possible the lack of sleep is adding to the problem.

I'm thinking I'll be at 10 mg for another week and then drop to 5 mg. Is it normal for your body to hurt when you get to the lower doses? How long does it usually take for these effects to fade?

I'm not even going to ask how long it will take for the 15 pounds I gained to go away...

It could be the length of time you've been on Pred or withdrawal symptoms. If you've been on Pred, for more than 3 months total, it could be cumulative effects of being on Pred for a while. The side effects don't hit right away so they can linger even if you're tapering. That's been my experience.

If you think it could be withdrawal symptoms, you may want to slow the taper even more. It's soooooo tempting to just get off the Pred but you might avoid some of the worst effects if you go down by 1 mg or 2.5 mg increments from this point on. That helped me a lot with both withdrawal symptoms and with keeping my UC symptoms from re-emerging.

Hmmm, maybe I am tapering too fast. I have these 20 mg pills, so breaking them down into smaller increments than 5 mg might be tricky. Maybe I can get a prescription with smaller doses.

Everything feels 'thick' if that makes any sense. My hands...legs...arms. When I'm overly active, I swell. My right arm swelled after raking the other day. The same thing happened a few days prior to that when I used the clippers for a while. It felt more swollen than it looked in appearance, but my husband could tell something was going on. I laid down for a bit and it was fine after a short while.

Thanks, Katmom. I was thinking dropping below 10 mg would be the easy part. Guess I'd better change my game plan.

Are you going to MSU v Nebraska? From your words, it sounds like you plan to be there. Night games kill me, but I wouldn't miss it for the world. I missed 3/4 the season last year due to my pancolitis diagnosis. I got control of things in enough time to watch MSU smash OSU in Indy. Then I headed to Pasadena to watch Spartan glory unfold in the Rose Bowl. Glad I wasn't well at the beginning of the season versus the end!

Most people, including doctors, don't realize that with prednisone withdrawal it is not the milligrams of the taper but the percentage of the taper that is the most important. When you taper down from 40 to 30 it is a 25% taper. When you taper down from 30 to 20 it is a 33% taper. When you taper down from 20 to 10 it is a 50% taper and if you taper to 5 from 10 it is also a 50% taper. So, when you are on the higher dose you only have a 25% taper and on the lower doses you can have a 50% taper. It is very common to experience more withdrawal on the lower doses than the higher doses. While nothing can eliminate the tapering withdrawal completely, tapering at smaller amounts at the lower doses will help considerably. You can take 5mgs pills cut in half or I believe they make both 2mg pills and 1 mg pills.

Yeah, should be easy to get a script for 5mg or smaller dose pills. Just ask/call your GI. They can likely fax the new script to your pharmacy and you can pick it up same day.

You can tapper off prednisone too fast. However, the inverse is not true. Going real slow is better after usage for multiple months, I was doing 1.5 mg drops every 2 weeks at the end of my yearlong dance with prednisone. It can be frustrating but you can only do what your body/symptoms allow. Good luck,

My dr is very conservative this time. Below 10 mg I've been tapering at 1 mg every wk. (using 1 mg tablets so I don't have to cut them). It feels like it's taking forever but have had no problems. Have never done such a slow taper but it has also never been so easy.