Good Morning All,
At my last apt with my rheumy he said I should go from 15 to 10 mg. I think that will be too drastic and have decided (no I am not a doctor) to take it slower and go to 12.5 (splitting tabs). What do you think? Each morning I am fairly stiff and by nightime I have hamstring pain. What do you think?
Thank you in anticipation.
Whitefish
I agree with you that it is too drastic. Even dropping from 15 to 12.5 is more than the recommended 10% drop. If you do decide to go to 12.5 don't do it in one go. Do one day new dose, five days old dose, one day new, four days old etc. If all goes well you will be on the new dose in 20 days, if not stay at 15mg til you feel well enough to try again.
Best of luck, Ron.
general rule is no more then 10% reduction, so that would be 1.5Mg. Above 10 mg some people get away with 2.5mg reduction ( I did), but some have issues. If you still have symptoms ( stifness and hamstring pain, the question is if you should reduce at all? Maybe you need more time @ 15mg to take care of these symptoms. Since you did not say how long have you been at 15mg dose, it is hard to give you more specific answer.
I was finally diagnosed end of March (pain started in October but old rheumy dithering for four months) and started on 20 mg. Finally saw new rheumy in May and he wanted me to reduce immediately.
Anyway I think you are all right (why don't the doctors prescribe this slow slow approach???) I will slow it down.
I agree and think I will slow it down. Thank you.
Definitely! I couldn't even get from 15mg to 12.5 and had to go to 13.5mg first, which is 10%. Good luck with it. Listen to your body, you are the only one who knows..
I wish just one major rheumy would get PMA....thanks for advice.
I have been told to do this carefully, not that I'm there yet, but if you are stiff on an evening there is a different option, take 10 on the morning and 2.5 with your evening meal if you have it early enough to 4-5pm, I do this as I work shifts and leave a small dose for the evening so I don't have pain in bed when trying to sleep for the next shift at work. I've been doing this for 3 ish weeks now and I've found a difference. Hope this is of help.
Lots of great advice already,I found Adettes method worked for me also but would split the dose before weaning i.e. For you 12.5 in the morning and 2.5 in the evening then if I was ok on that would drop the evening dose off until I was ready to drop again. If 2.5 mg drop is too much for you try splitting 1mg at a time. I found I needed to do this when reducing from 10 mg.
Thanks for expertise and support. I can see I am going to need to get 1mg tablets from the doctor. UGH. My nice rhemy wanted me to go from 15 - 10 mg in a month. You slightly get tired of trying to say you want to go slower. I have had this condition since oct 15 and this forum helps me get thru it. Thanks everyone.
I started at 15 mg and after five weeks or so I began the reduction. But my sensible doctor said by 1 mg per week. And to stop reducing if I noticed pain returning. This was very good advice for the beginning. I felt pain at 9, and at that point was fortunate to find this forum and the Dead Slow Nearly Stop plan, which my doctor looked at and approved. Have been following it ever since, from my second time at 10 mg. This method has enabled me to get to 3 mg in about 14 months since diagnosis. I believe I'll be at this dose for a while as my adrenal glands need to get a bit more lively! But I credit the slow pace for success so far. I believe that without this method I'd be yoyoing up and down and not getting anywhere.