Hi blackorse32 - I am tapering from 9mg to 8mg prednisone and am getting really hot flushes - I know I am at the age of flushes but these are different - really hot dripping on my forehead and lasts about 10 mins everytime about 4 times a day - horrendous!

Hi Blackorse32, We all have our adventures with tapering. I get warm flashes, heavy legs, and I will feel bad during a taper. I will not taper lower until I feel normal and adjusted. When I go below 10mg, I will taper down by a half milligram every two weeks. I will also stay at a particular dosage a month or longer if I do not feel good enough to taper lower.

I like to drink Gatoraid when tapering if I feel crummy. Gatoraid has a nice balance of sodium, sugar, and hydration to support my kidney adrenals. I will also check my blood pressure and blood sugars when tapering too. Gatoraid is helpful to give me a slight raise in blood pressure if my BP drops low.

When tapering, I will stay in contact with my doctor too. Tapering is not a race. The whole point of our meds is to feel well on a daily basis. Drink plenty of water or fluids to stay hydrated too.

I hope this helps.

OH my goodness! YES!
I'm 28 and in the middle of a VERY fast taper - sweats, chills, massive fatigue, etc etc :( as my doctor puts it, it throws our thermostats off while our adrenal glands try to kick in and normalize again. I am so sorry you are going through this too :(
Tapering is the beginning of the end though - keep strong!

I would agree absolutely with TRPT. Unless you need to be off steriods for diagnostic purposes it takes as long as it takes. It took me 14 months to taper from 60mgs to being off. It was slow but steady. It was sometimes hard but mostly not. The trick is to know which symptoms are prednisone withdrawal and which are a disease flare. Withdrawal will usually recover after about a week until the next lowering of the dose, its a question of pushing through it. I imagine a flare is different. It is great to be off but I did not rush it. Autumm

Thanks everyone for the advise.

Meow...Hi Everybody,

I'm back to trying to taper slowly. Couple of weeks ago, was at 10, went to 7.5 at the same time I tried physical therapy. Flared really bad, and got bad leg aches at night. Went back on 10. Got over the flare and realized I was dehydrated. Now, I drink at least 8- 8oz glasses of water until bedtime. No more nightly leg aches.

Went back down to 7.5 yesterday. So far, feel what is normal for me with this PM.

Hugs to All...Good luck tapering to as low as you can go.

Purr,
=^.,.^=