For me, yes. I LOVE prednisone, but I blow up like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float!

Pred reduces the inflammation, which subsequently reduces the pain.

There are many like me who refuse to use oral Pred because when we go off it we rebound terribly.

Crazy as it seems, I can take intrajoint Kenalog [corticosteroid] with no problems. You might look into that instead if you have a couple major joints that are screaming. If you go this route, have the injections done by an orthopedic surgeon. They do this kind of injection day in and day out. It's a very painful injection if given by the inexperienced physician.

I love prednisone. I think my husband likes it more because I was pain free and normal. Down side was took me while to get off and wild dreams at very high dosage.

I was on prednisone low dosage for three months right after the onset of Early RA. I felt great on it. Lots of energy, zero pain. I still take it with me just in case on long trips but so far did not have to take it.

It bears reminding:

Prednisone can mask the aggressiveness of the disease. That is, you might feel fine but Pred does nothing about halting the progression of RA.

Pred, in my opinion, should never be used except short term in acute flares, if at all.

I take Prednisolone, because regular Predisone gives me a weird reaction; everything has a metallic taste. Steroids are definitely are my friends when I am having a flare, they reduce the swelling and take the pain level away.

5mg/day for me. Started at 10, backed down to 5.Any less and my lungs begin producing large amounts of mucous. Yes, have seen Pulmonologist (sp) along with RA and GP, numerous tests on the fluid, scans, xrays, etc.......conclusion was that the RA was affecting the joints where collar bones meat breast bone and where ribs and breast meet. I'm 56 and all the docs agreed that at my age low does pred from here out won't be as detrimental to me as if I started in my 30's. One of the docs told me quite frankly the RA would get me long before the prednisone. Word of caution, if you take it in any dose and later must come off for some reason (surgery) ween off slowly or you'll have a pred crash and that was 4-5 days of bad-bad.

Thank you for replies!! I’m on 10mg for a week. Then we discuss what else I can do.
I’m coughing up fluid but that happened before prednisone
I was starting to get sick. I have asthma too :/

I had that metallic taste at one point too. Even plain water tasted like licking an aluminum pot. Went away after a couple of weeks.

10 mg of Prednisone is a fairly low dose, at least initially until DMARDS start to take effect. Took me a year to finally wean off Pred entirely and I am glad I did. I will NEVER say I love Prednisone but it got me over the worst part initially.

I backed down to 5mg and even skipped a day. Pain is back. :(
I see my Dr on 29th. Until then I may ask for refill on prednisone. Took away 90% of my pain.
Hate the side affects though. Will discuss other treatments on 29th when I see my rheumy.
Can 5mg prednisone really affect you so much? This is frustrating. I want less pain, but side affects are awful.

Greentea, what are you taking for your RA presently?

Beat me to it, Lynn! Prednisone is not meant to be a drug which stops the disease. It is only to bridge to DMARDs and biologics working.

I have been on it a lot. Yes, it helped me get out of bed. No, it did not stop the progression of the disease, and the side effects were endless! Please let us know what you are taking to stop the disease, and how long you have been on it. If it starts to work, you may be able to get off prednisone, as I have done in the past. I have not taken it for RA since last January, although during western forest fires, I was back on it for 2 months this summer, which did help my RA, but not enough to want to stay on it!

It is addictive, you do need to titrate off, if you stay on 10 mg for longer than a week to 10 days.

I start MTX Friday.
2.5mg
I picked it up today but want to start on Friday night before bed in case I experience bad side affects.
We will do MTX & prednisone for next 5 weeks. Then I see Dr again. He is monitoring my blood levels too.
Sound about right? :)

Reduced to 5mg prednisone. So I’m
Good with that.

It would be very unusual for someone to experience noticeable side effects from 2.5 mg of MTX.