Preds and getting off them!

[amor151]

preds and getting off them!

just wondering about prednisone and how quickly you guys were taken off it. i started off at 40mg and reduced it by 5mg on a weekly basis until i was at around 10mg and could do nothing without serious discomfort. talking to friends with crohns one told me it took them around a year to get from 40mg to nothing and into a state of remission that has lasted almost a year. in that case why was i taken off it so fast? i no it has some serious side effects and some doctors are reluctant to use it but it got my friend into a state of remision which is what all of us crohnies ultimately want

just interested to see what dosage of preds you all feel comfortable on (15mg for me) and at what pace do you decrease your intake at. am getting of the preds soon for azathioprine though i dont hold much hope for it from what ive heard.

write back soon all!

 

[Kev]

Hey amor151 There's no specific formula for tapering. no official studies have been done. coming off is pretty hit or miss. typically, if one starts to taper, and either experiences withdrawal (coming off too fast) or starts to flare (it may be just up/down of disease, or it might be from coming off to soon) then lot of docs will either slow the taper, or ramp back up to a working dosage, hold at that level for a week, then start to taper again.

One person can go into a remission after a round of pred, stay there for any period of time.. and yet the exact same routine will fail another, even fail the original if they relapse and try it again. Hate to say it, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. think it's more the quirks of IBD than preds fault