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Best way to taper from 5mg of Pred?

Hey everyone,

I'm (hopefully!) finishing a 3 month battle with an obstructive stricture in my TI and I finally made it down to 5mg of pred from 40mg (7.5mg now, starting tomorrow morning). Since I've made it this far, I don't want to rush things but I also want to be done with it so I know for sure if I've "won". I have been tapering 5mg every week until 15, and then 2.5mg every 4-5 days until 5mg.

I understand ~5mg of pred is the physiological equivalent of cortisone so should I be slowing down to 1mg per week or something? I also heard about switching to hydrocortisone 20mg and then tapering off that. What is the point of that?

I hope that once I am done with this I can post the details of my battles to help others as so far I have been staying away from surgery/immunosuppressants!
 

rygon

Moderator
I was on 20 or 30mg of pred for 2months (IIRC) and they just tapered it down by 5mg per week. Once down to 5mg I then stopped. I remember feeling a bit crappy every time I tapered down, but perked up after 3-4 days (ready to taper down again :p)
 
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