prednisone
 

ok, so here I am at 3am bummed because today I gave in to trying 12 days prednisone. First dose was 6 -10 mg tablets. Shouldnt I see a difference? Or will it take the 12 days? 60 mg for three days, then 40 then 20 then 10.

I believe it is unlikely you will experience any improvement for some time with prednisone, especially with such a rapidly reducing dose. For me it took about a month to be noticeable and 8 weeks of very gradual improvement at 25mg a day before the dose started to be tapered by 5mg every six weeks. I also take Mestinon (now only as required), and 100mg Imuran which my neuro says will eventually take over from both. Tapering of the pred will be even slower when the dose gets below 10mg. I am interested to see what other more experienced people have to say in response to your post.
Marian
Tasmania
Australia

I totally agree with Marian's comments, they reflect my own experience...
Maurice.

So ?
 

thanks for the replies. Sooooo, are you saying that, since this is only for 12 days, its not going to do anything?

Draggin, It may or may not! Nice answer, huh? Everyone is different with Pred. Give it some time. Talk to your doc if it's not working. Sometimes you can get worse before you get better. I know, stupid right?

Look out for any infections while on immunosuppression.

Annie

Thanks I will...... P.S.:) Im not Marian

I think I'm hallucinating tonight!!! ;) I am so seriously stressed out right now that I'm not paying attention. Sorry.

Annie
Thanks for your answer, I always appreciate reading your contributions, but I'm not sure what you mean since I didn't ask a question. Was it meant for draggin'? So far the pred/Imuran are working as expected by the neuro, much to my delight.

draggin'
I didn't mean to hijack your thread and hope you get more input from others who have had different experiences with pred so you get a big picture of the varied effects it might have. And always talk to your doc. Sometimes they are not very forthcoming with info unless you ask (they either think you don't want/need to know or they plain don't think). The trick is knowing what to ask. You can find out a lot from previous threads on this forum. I have found it a very useful resource.

Marian (my name)
Melisma (my member ID)

Yes, that's what I'm saying but not being a doctor can only cite my own experience and what I have read of others' and researching sources online.
As Annie says, sometimes you can get worse initially with pred or if the dose is too high and there are lots of references to this tho it didn't happen to me.

The following is a paragraph from an article at this link:

http://www.australianprescriber.com/...e/30/6/156/60/

"Prednisone

Prednisone or another corticosteroid is the primary immunosuppressant used in myasthenia gravis. Sustained improvement or remission can be achieved while patients remain on treatment. A typical course for generalised myasthenia gravis would use 1 mg/kg prednisone daily (0.5 mg/kg for ocular myasthenia gravis) until clinical control is achieved and then weaning either directly or by initial conversion to alternate daily dosage, with the determination of a maintenance dose by trial and error during a slow withdrawal of medication over many months. Deterioration in myasthenia gravis can occur in the first few weeks of treatment so the dose is often increased slowly. The mean time to maximal effect of prednisone in myasthenia gravis is six months - much longer than most expect."

All the best
Marian

Draggin',

Annie is right, everyone is affected differently. I started at 5mg in September, for a few days I was a little weak, but after around a week I could tell a difference in strength. I was really bad off when he prescribed it, he asked me at the appointment after all the strength tests how I got into his office.:eek: Since then he upped me 5mg every week to my current 20mg dose. After every dose increase I could tell difference. I hope your 12 days on it work well for you, and hope you become stronger, and stronger each day.

Warm Regards!
Kristy