Drat. What next.

Not sure what to do.

I tapered from 40 to 30 after seven days. Now I'm seeing some blood.

My choices are

1) Eat smoother foods

2) Go back up to 40 mg

3) Get my bloodwork done and start 6 mp

4) Stay the course and see if the blood clears up.

There is a real, real problem putting a bipolar person (like me) on prednisone. I'm taking an anti-psychotic to counteract side effects. I attribute the lack of rectal pain so far to the enemas and the suppository

I know we all want to get off pred ASAP but I do think 10mg is a lot to drop in one go. You could talk to your Dr about going back up to 35 or even 40mg then comming back down 5mg at a time. I also think the last stage of weaning should be as gentle as possible. My daughter got away with 5mg drops this time, but I think if she needs to go onto pred again it may be safer if she came down from the 10mg stage in 2mg steps rarther than 10 - 5 - 0mg.
Sue

Sometimes when tapering it can take 1-2 days for the body to adjust to the drop in dosage. But if it carries on longer then I would speak to the doctor about bumping back up to 40mg, and tapering at a slower rate. I think that if you're going to be on a drug as strong as pred then you should try to make it work for you instead of rushing a taper.

Also, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the blood work done, and that way you have the option to consider taking 6MP. I would still carry on eating smoother/easy to digest foods when on pred so that you're also giving your system a better chance to rest and heal.

quincy, please cool it a bit.

I think that Rio's advice is good. Try not to let a little blood freak you out too much and look at the big picture of how you do over a three or so days. How are you urgency and frequency-wise?

Sounds like you're doing great, then! I don't think I'd step down further on the pred until things have been stable at 30mg for a while, but I don't think I'd bump back up, either. Good luck!

Hi Ellen :)

I agree with Fruitgirl as far as not stepping down further until you have been stable.. I'd say for at LEAST a week, two would even be better.. I also had problems tapering too fast and learned the hard way, had to go back up to 50, then tapered slowly over a 3 month period.. Also, from 20mg, I'd only drop it 2.5 at a time... IMHO... :)

I hope you hang in there, I know what a pain it is to be on Pred.. believe me!

That's great, I hope you are really getting past this flare. Peace.