My understanding is that I will do 15 mg for 5 days beginning Friday,
then 10 mg for another 5 days, then 5mg beginning on the 17 of october
but I see no stop date on the calendar my phamarcy gave me.
So if I did 5 days on 5mg and stopped on Oct 21 , I will have been on
Pred for 25 days and taken a total of 325 mg of Pred......as i said in
earlier post I went to see the GP but she said to return sometime at
the end of October when I was down to 5mg.
Tks to all of ((((you)))) for taking the time to respond and give of
your own experience, its extremely helpfull in removing fear of
meds.... In earlier post someone noted " Fear the disease not the Meds
" I thought that's a good way to think outside of the box
again thks :-)))))

Hmmm...doesn't the anti-inflamatory effect of prednisone reduce the
progression of inflamatory damage to the joints? Pred also reduces
lymphocyte counts and suppresses their function, and in RA it's the
T-cells that are actively attacking the joints.

Spod,
Perhaps I should've phrased that differently, you are right. Prednisone
does have immuno-regulatory properties as well as being a strong anti
inflammatory. However, since long term use at high dosages is so
dangerous, maybe I should've said that unless there is no other choice,
prednisone is not the primary treatment of choice for erosive
arthritis, (though for those who don't respond to DMARDS, NSAIDS, or
cannot take them for whatever reason, sometimes there is no choice).
Following is a quote from John Hopkins:

Corticosteroids have both anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory
activity. They can be given systemically or can be injected
intra-articularly. Corticosteroids are useful in early disease as
temporary adjunctive therapy while waiting for DMARDs to exert their
antiinflammatory effects. Corticosteroids are also useful as chronic
adjunctive therapy in patients with severe disease that is not well
controlled on NSAIDs and DMARDs. The usual dose of predinisone is 5 to
10mg daily. Although prednisone can be started at higher doses (15 to
20mg daily), attempts should be made to taper the dose over a few weeks
to less than 10mg daily. Once started, corticosteroid therapy is very
difficult to discontinue and even at low doses. Tapering of prednisone
should be done slowly over a few weeks and symptoms may reoccur with
small changes in the prednisone dose.

Thanks for pointing out my error,
Char