@Rob3
Hey thank you for your input.
Yes it seems that is the case. But maybe the dosage wasn’t the right amount for either of us??
Hi Angie,
was just thinking that there might be some pain from a bit of damage, probably in addition to inflammation … it’s impossible to know but it’s all going to be grist for your rheumy’s mill in August so yes, it is worth making notes of what does and does not improve.
Hopefully you’re correct about the dosage. Thinking back I’m not sure if the one & only steroid taper I’ve had helped completely with pain either. At the time my knees were extremely swollen and I couldn’t bend them - the one thing the steroids definitely did was to loosen them up enough to make walking just about possible, but I had had steroid injections in the knees too, so … it’s just hard to know really. Do you use WD40 on stiff nuts & bolts in the States? For me, steroid shots and perhaps that taper were like WD40 for my joints. More recently I’ve had steroid shots in my backside, sometimes thinking they weren’t needed, but the shot loosens me up and makes me realise that joints have actually been quite stiff.
You know, so much depends on where we’re at in terms of diagnosis and treatment, all of that influences our outlook and expectations. I’d been diagnosed, I had a long-term treatment plan and had just started Mtx when I took the prednisone tablets. So I was able to look ahead hopefully and any improvement was welcome. I was on the road, on my way, but you’re still waiting at the bus stop and that is hard to handle. There’s a lot that can be done about pain and hopefully once you’ve had that August appointment you’ll get a plan in place that makes the step by step process easier to bear.
1 Like
Hi Angie B,
Even 2 x 4 mg pills (8mg - was this per day or twice a day?) is a low dose if it’s daily. Certainly depending on how big a flare you are in, it can be very dose dependent - in the last few years, if I get a flare, I would have needed at least 4 of those pills per day to get much impact, and then it would probably take 2 or 3 days of that dose for me to be feeling better. I’ve been through patches where I needed 25-30mg a day or more.
Of course, big doses of steroids are even worse for you than small ones, so I’m not suggesting you do that unless you really need to! But certainly the way I read your posts was that the steroids probably were working, since you feeling better was dose dependent. Have you had a chance to raise it with your Rheumy?
@Sybil thank you so much! After reading, I feel a LOT better and definitely more hopeful! August 23rd can’t get here fast enough!
Oh yeah we have WD-40 lol we use it on a lot of stuff too.
Yeah I think it was the 2nd or either 3rd day of pred pack, I woke up not as stiff or hurting. I felt awesome really! But after that, the dosage decreased too much I believe.
Thank you again. You have no idea how much better I feel now, even though I’ve had a horrible day.
Praying for better days ahead for all of us!
@Jen75 hey there. Thank you for your input.
Well it was a prednisone pack, that started with 6 -4mg pills a day. Then decreased by one each day until it was down to one on the last day and then I was done. So the first day was a total of 24mg. 2nd day was 20mg, etc.
I have my first rheumatologist appointment in August. I’m writing down everything as I remember it. My memory is not so good. But I’ll be sure to bring it up to him.
Yes - I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with your reply to Sybil - when I looked back over the thread, that’s how it looked to me as well.
If only we could have the good without the bad with prednisone… Anyhoo, best of luck for August 23 - I’ve been on and off prednisone, even dependent for some time, but now finally I have a DMARD (biologic) that is working well, I couldn’t even tell you how many prednisone tablets I have in my cupboard! (I keep a rescue stash).
I am crossing my fingers for that for you too 
1 Like