Taper off prednisone

[Allie]

I am currently on 30 mg of Prednisone thanks to what was one of the bigger flares of my life. I'm starting to feel better and my GI is planning to start tapering me off. My doctor said that we will taper down 5mg at a time and I want to make sure we don't do it too fast and have me end up back in a flare again. How slowly have you tapered off prednisone without flaring back up?

 

[Joleen23]

Im Currently tapering by 5mg every week and am down to 5mg , so far no problems (was in a bad flare too) Good luck

 

[Briere]

Hello

I was released from hospital on 50ml of prednisone and they cut it down by 5 every 2 weeks , I'm of them for now :hang:

 

[Astra]

I started on 50mg and tapered by 10mg every month. It took nearly a year. When I got to 20mg I flared up again, so upped it and started again.
Mine wasn't just a flare tho, I was infected after nearly rupturing.
Tapering Pred is a trial and error thing, if it's not finished it's work, chances are you'll flare up again, and maybe have to up it again and start over.
Good luck
xxx

 

[Grumbletum]

First flare for me ( well, it did go on for 8 months til diagnosis! ) and started on 20mg for 10 days. Now tapering 15 for 2 weeks, 10 for 3. So far so good. Hope it goes well for you too.

 

[spcwife23]

I started at 40mg and now down to 25 mg.. When i first went on prednisone I went into a bad flare when I tried to taper by 10 mg,so I took things really really slow.. I'm listening to my body if I dont feel my body is ready to taper after a week I talk to my doctor and he usually say to stay another week.. Like this week I was gonna taper on Friday to 20 mg but something tells me not to until the following friday.. So just listen to your body you will know what's right for it.. It's wierd when people say listen to your body but it does tell you. Take things slow, your thinking is exactly like mines, I rather take things really slow at this time and deal with everything once that way I can be healthy at the end of it.. I have the moon face and I gain weight but I know I can always lose it, and I can deal with that more than the pain.. Good luck

 

[Saphira]

Brandon was on 40mg for 5 days then went down to 30mg, tapering by 5 mg every 5 days, but at 20mg symptoms came back went back to 30mg and down again, every time we got to 20mg symptoms came back (pain was always in the background). We gave up tapering and switched to Remicade, now we are back to tapering 5mg every 5 days and down to 5mg no flares yet!!
2 more days and we'll stop it completely!!
Then we'll work on getting off the Omeprazole and Asacol, so hopefully Remicade will be the only drug needed. Well thats the plan anyway.
Trina

PS We also had trouble getting off Entocort. At 9mg he was doing fairly well, but each time we dropped to 6mg, symptoms increased, thats how we ended up on Pred.

 

[littlemissh]

I am tapering by 2.5mg every 4 weeks, I did a quicker taper but flared every time i went below 20mg. Once I had been on azathioprine for a while I have been ok below 20mg pred and now on 12.5mg.

 

[eilsew]

It took me 4 or 5 months to taper from 40mg. I got all the way off, and then a month later had a flare, and they put me back on 30. Now I'm tapering down 5mg every week. It's a long road. Once I got to 15mg, they start to taper by 2.5mg a week. I hate the stuff. The taste, the weight issues, the hand smasms it gives me, the mood swings. Luckily it hasn't been too bad this time around, but I'd rather avoid it. It does however, make me feel better.

 

[ChefShazzy]

At one time, I was on 60mg of pred, I tapered by 5mg/week, until i got got to 15 mg. Then I tapered by 2.5mg/week. Man, it felt like it took forever to wean off! I find that once I get below 20mg/week, I get really tired and some symptoms return. It's pretty much a trial and error kind of thing; definitely don't taper any more than 5mg/week. Good luck!

 

[tiloah]

How long are you at each dose? My doc prescribed me a taper starting at 40 mg and going down 10 mg every 2 weeks. The next doc I saw told me to go down 5 mg every two weeks.

I think reducing by 5 mg is a pretty slow taper, but it depends how long you are at each dose (reducing by 5 mg every day wouldn't be very slow at all!).