Shar
Hi Nancy, I am sorry to hear that you are not improving. I, too, had a relapse in February, when my doctor had me lower my Prednisone dose from the initial 20 mg to 15 mg, and the relapse occurred about 10 days afterwards, but it plateaued out about a week after the relapse, and I began to notice a marked improvement. My doctor warned me that I might suffer a recurrence of symptoms temporarilly, until my body adjusted to the lower dose. Each time my Prednisone is reduced, I have had setbacks, but I always improved within a week of the relapse. The only time an improvement didn't occur, was when the Prednisone was reduced from 7.5 mg to 5 mg recently. I had painful shoulders and hips, and even one knee had pain and stiffness at the 5 mg level, and I put up with this for 3 weeks, hoping to plateua out, but the symptoms kept getting worse, so my doctor had me go back up to 7.5 mg, and then it took about 10 days for an improvement. I now feel much better. I think the reduction from 7.5 to 5 was just too big of a drop, and I plan to talk to my rheumatologist about tapering more slowly when it's time to try it again. Maybe you should ask your doctor about a slower taper. How long have you been taking Prednisone? Was your sed rate up? My rheumy said that it can't be fibromalgia, if the sed rate is up. My family doctor agreed with him. Good luck and I hope you feel much better! Please get back to me soon! Shar