Somewhere on this site, and I just cannot find it I posted that I was going to take a drop from 3mg to 2.5mg (it was a long posting so I am not going to do it again).
Well, I finally took the drop a week past Saturday and boy did I go through it.
EileenH and MrsO reminded me I had not done the math - it was a 17% drop. Too much in one go so I found out the hardway.
However, by the Friday - back to normal (or what passes for normal) and the drop seems to have worked.
Next time - I am going to do ADT or Ragnar, as 0.5mg to 2mg looks a long way down to me. But I will still 'clear the decks' for the week following the drop.
Oh and I made the 75th Birthday lunch and had a great time.
Mrs. K Sorry your reduction gave you problems but glad you are over the worst and enjoyed the party.
Re the maths: If you put your present dose into the calculator and press multiplication sign, 90, then percent then = that will tell you what your next dose should be which is not much help at the practical level so, as you say, Ragnar or ADT seems a better answer.
I dropped from 5 to 4.5 last Wednesday and have been feeling a bit under the weather but have hung on as I've found that it can take well over a week for the drop effect to go away. As you can see, my drop was only 10%. Next time I shall be VERY careful. I wonder how I can organise 4.05? Not with the pill chopper I think.
Yes, I so understand that to you a drop to 2mg \"looks a long way down\".....you have after all got there from the 60mgs you started on over 4 years ago! :D :ok:
Same for me trying to do a drop from 1 to 0.5......from a starting dose of 40mgs over 4 years ago! :D
Don't worry about working out the percentages - much too daunting. :roll:
I'm just sticking to the 0.5 reductions every few days at this stage and crossing everything I've got! Rooting for you too, and everyone else \"looking in\" - you will all get there! :blackcat:
Pill cutters - after all the practice I've had, I'm still chopping a few pills each day until I decide that I get what look like two 0.5s! :roll: It wont make much difference when/if I get to 0.5 daily because a bit less one day will be made up the next day by the bigger half whereas at the moment I'm only doing 0.5 on about every 5th day and don't want to risk less than half a pill. :roll:
Hope the withdrawal symptoms disappear soon following your latest reduction.
I have felt a bit tired this last week I am sticking on 2mg for now I have bloods due at the end of this week and Dr next Monday so will wait and see whats happenning
I have been busy since I came back from my hoilday lots to do in the Garden and at my field and combined with a throat bug again !! I felt really tired Sat but an evening out with friends and some good food and wine perked me up Today i felt so tired this afternoon I lay down for about an hours sleep before yet more gardenning !!
I feel I must make the most of this lovely weather it cannot last !!
Hello everyone just wanted to see how you are all doing.
I bought myself a pill cutter and it broke trying to cut the first pill ha ha will have to try and get another one :lol: perhaps I'm trying to run before walk lol
I realize that my US 1 mg pills may be different from the UK ones but have you tried splitting them with your fingers? I find that a thumb nail inserted in the groove and a quick, sharp snap yields two pieces that are pretty much equal. Usually the results are better than those achieved with a pill cutter. :D
My present supply of 1mg tablets doesn't have a groove in the middle. I have a stock of irregular halves but have recently worked out that if I press the cutter in a certain way (pushing the top half slightly backwards as I cut) it seems to be working better - perhaps it's a case of just getting to know your cutter! :wink: Now that I'm taking 0.5 each day I'm not so worried about having equal halves as over 2 days I will have the right 1mg dose. Oh, what exciting lives we lead! :roll: :D
I'm with Mrs O....who needs Cryptic crosswords and Suduko to keep the mind active when we have all these medications to micro-manage :lol: :roll: :!: :doh: .
I am 5' 8\" tall, I have size 8 feet, I'm a size 14 and I weigh over 11 stone. I am what my Mum used to call 'a big girl'. I played in goal at hockey for Hampshire as a teenager. And what has felled me in one swoop? Half a tiny tablet, less than the size of a mint tic-tac!!! Oh the power of Prednisolone :o Who would have thought that half a mg could be so destructive :monster: . While I was on 15, 10 even 5mgs I would read in these posts how some of you were finding it impossible to reduce by just .5mg. Bah, thought I, I won't have that problem, how could .5mg make much difference. I know now :yikes: I'm now trying to reduce by .5mg from 4 to 3.5mgs over a 14 day period - see how that goes. Yeh, yeh, I know all about percentages etc. but it still seems amazing that this tiny weeny half a tablet can look at me and think - got ya!!! However, I'm not prepared to feel rough for the sake of half a flippin' mg, so will revert to 4 again if it doesn't work. Good luck to all you pill cutters, I'm OK at the moment as I'm still using my 2.5mg tablets. Off to have coffee with my best friend who's just come back from a 2 week cruise. Lots of catching up to do :lol:
I'm five foot nothing on a tall day, size 36 continental shoe (3 1/2 in the UK if they are wide enough) - 11 stone would probably be quite nice (I have no idea what I weigh) and size 14 VERY acceptable! My line is I'm not over weight for my height - I'm under tall for my weight. :roll: :wink: Most of the weight went on pre-diagnosis (none of this weight loss that is supposed to be a symptom of PMR) although the upper arms and back chubby bits are steroid-induced :oops: . However - I'm absolutely positive the swim rings are deflating slowly - I am still wearing clothes from 5 years ago so I will keep being optimistic.
Im now resorting to 4mg each day now Feel Ok today
I know what you mean about .5 of a milligram !!!!!!! When I had this the first time and went from 20 to 1mg in a year I was alternating 10 & 7.5 7.5 and 6 no trouble and just went down 5 , 4, 3 ,2 1 None of this 5days of 1 dose to 2 days of the other dose !
My sister in law who was taken ill in 2002 ( when I was) with a much worse illness refused point blank to go below 5mg of pred as they were easing her onto methotrixate I think she is on 6mg now and takes more when she has a hospital appointment so she can cope with it
I found it difficult to understand ( with my first bout ) how she couldnt reduce by .5 while I was sailing down even though it was a different illness I know a bit bettter now Shows what powerful little things they are and necessary to us
Im not going to even think of reducing yet A distant rainbow !!
Hi Mrs G. Pleased to hear that 4mgs is good for you just now. I'm very 'comfy' at 4mgs but thought I should at least try to get a bit lower as I managed to get to 2.5mgs before Jake's op. As Eileen mentioned a while ago, some people have to stay on a low maintenance dose, so if that's what I have to do, then I will. But not giving up just yet :lol:
Hi Eileen. My Mum used to say I had cement for marrow bone! I was a size 10 (for about 8 hours once!!!) and still weighed over 10 and half stone. Of course it could have been the wrong label :whistle:
Feeling better today even after having friends to stay all weekend, so fingers crossed. I've got little or nothing planned for the next two weeks in preparation for the drive to Spain.
Well, after 4 years of dealing with the GP and same Chemist, wrong pred strength delivered. 1mg tablets instead of 2.5mg, and what's more they have doubled the amount.
So, if I return them, they will be thrown away and that is sheer waste.
Do not get next blood test till Tuesday and I promised my GP I would stick with 2.5mg daily until we got the results of that one.
Welll needs must when the devil drives, so, 2mg one day 3mg next day.
Looking forward to it really, gives me an excuse and if it works ok, will then be able to argue for 2mg drop.
Fingers crossed that the CRP does not go over the 13 - then he won't be happy. If its 13 or under - then next drop here we come.
New computer now and a steep learning curve. Windows 7 and a whole host of new thingy mi jiggs. Treacle brain needs to keep away.
This new wireless keyboard and mouse have monds of their own.
Do hope the oversight by the pharmacy ends up working to your advantage,,,,,,,,and you get to a lower dose 'accidentally'! :wink:
Is your new computer a laptop? If so, I know just how strange you are finding it - I'm using one at the moment and have trouble putting the mouse exactly where I want it - when I want to go back and add a letter I might have missed I usually end up clicking on the wrong spot.......might invest in a separate mouse if I don't manage to get the main computer sorted!
I'm told Windows 7 is quite good - is that true? Anything can be better than Vista though! I need a new computer really as although this one is OK for almost everything I'm getting the occassional enormous PowerPoint file to translate and it can't do them and has a paddy. I link the netbook in which has 2007 and can cope with the newer files but it is SOOOOOOOOOOO slow! So a new computer it will need to be whilst we are over in the UK in July - has to be an English-speaking one!
This new wireless keyboard and mouse have monds of their own.