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tapering off prednisone questions

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 1/26/2017 3:42 PM (GMT 0)
hello,
i know that there are no direct responses to what i'm about to ask, but any useful info would be appreciated.
i've been on prednisone for 2 months now after a very bad UC flare, and started tapering from 40 mg after a few weeks in. i'm now down to 15 mg, and i'm curious as to wether my symptoms will come back. stupid question i know, since i'm still on prednisone and there's really no way of knowing. but to those of you who have been on it, what dosage did your symptoms come back? or did they come back when you were completely off it? i also started on apriso a few weeks ago so not sure if that is working or not. i'd appreciate and type of feedback!
Posted 1/26/2017 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
There is really no way to tell, I've had both situations. I've gotten to a specific mg dose of Prednisone and noticed that my symptoms were creeping back in so we had to raise it to a dose that would control my symptoms. I've also gotten off steroids completely only to have symptoms return a short time after. My therapeutic dose was usually 20mg to control my issues. Just remember to taper slowly so your body's adrenal glands have a chance to slowly start to produce it's own steroids again.
Posted 1/26/2017 5:25 PM (GMT 0)
Generally it's around the 10-12 milligram mark where people are most likely to start regressing, if they're going to. It can happen at any dose though. I'm at zero mgs for two days and cautiously optimistic. I figure two weeks off to be truly out of the woods.
Posted 1/26/2017 7:45 PM (GMT 0)
I'm dropping to 10mg from 20mg tomorrow so fingers crossed. Was on 40mg for 10 days, 30mg for 7 days then 20mg for 4 weeks. Then have 10 days at 10mg then 10 days of 5mg.
I'm the same as the poster above as I have had both situations occur.
The first time I was on pred I successfully tapered with no issues but symptoms came back 3 weeks later. The second time on pred I started on 40mg and as soon as I dropped to 30mg symptoms came back however I also started mesalamine enemas at the same time and whilst they took a while to kick in they did more for me than the pred and I successfully tapered off the pred whilst maintaining the enemas. I stayed symptom free for about 18 months.
I eventually stopped the enemas and about 5 months later started flaring. So fingers crossed I can come off the pred successfully this time and I know now not to stop the enemas.
You need to get your maintenance meds right at the right levels otherwise your symptoms may return when you come off the pred.
Best of luck
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