Re: Dosages ...

[Guest guest]

Sandy wrote " I went back up to 20mg predisone and started taking the napro

again

and today (sunday) I'm feeling pretty good again.

I'm 5'10, 180lbs ... what sort of dosages are others taking (assuming

you're taking similar drugs). Does it even make any sense to ask such

a question? Any similiar experiences? "

Hi Sandy

It sounds as though you should keep taking the nightly naprosyn again, as it

appears to help. Apparently, the anti-inflammatories (of which Naproyn is

one) work better when taken regularly and, with our diseases, at a

reasonably high dosage level. You can't stay on prednisone long-term, as it

has nasty side-effects with long-term use. Have you told your doctor you

have increased your prednisone? You should let them know and take their

advice on how to taper off it, rather than playing around with the dosage

itself: I don't mean to alarm you, but it is a powerful drug I'm tapering

off it slowly myself and am down to 10 mg now.

Also, remember that you'll most likely need to stay on the

anti-inflammatories and salazopyrin for a long time (years, not months or

weeks).

All the best,

[Guest guest]

Hi Sandy,

When I tapered my prednisone last year, I went in increments of 5 mg and

stayed on that dose for about 4 weeks before dropping again. I also

incrementally increased my Celebrex while tapering the prednsione. When I was

completely off the prednisone is when I could start tapering the celebrex off.

I

started with coming off the night dose of 200 mg. I then took my morning dose

of

400 mg to 200 mg and then eventually came off completely. That worked for me

then. I'm having a bit more difficulty now however. Thsi is my first

exacerabation of joint pain since I've been off all of my meds. My rheumy

didn't

want me on prednisone for 6 months again and wanted to start me on

methotrexate. I really thought that it was too much medicine for my degree of

pain.

We started with just a dose pack of prednisone( 6 day taper pack) and 400

celelbrex in am and 200 in pm.That seemed to work in getting rid of the back

back

and now it's just loclaized in my knees. I'm happy to report that the

relapse is no where near the magnitude of the first go around. It's about

10-20%

of the pain and swelling that I had initially. I have some great days and

probably do too much , followed by really rotten days. I spent alll weekend

in bed and feel great today, but missed two days in work this weekend. Fatigue

is my biggest problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to combat

this part of the syndrome besides droping out of life for a few days. Sandy,

you are correct in that it is not an exact science, but I think taking the

nsaids or cox2's(in my case) on a regular basis is probably wise until you wean

of the steroids. I hope you are feeling better soon. I've read all of your

posting and can identify with your cousre completely.

Margie