Pharmokinetics symptoms and conditions

Very few side effects. My father was put on 30 mg of Prednisone to control an inflammation that he was having in his body. It seemed to work well. He had also lost considerable weight, had anemia and was admitted to the hospital prior. So I wasn't worried about the common side effect of Prednisone of weight gain, as post-hospital we were glad he was gaining weight. I don't know if it was a side effect, as he only slowly gained a pound or two each week and then eventually plateaued about about his old weight.

We've now started tapering it, at my recommendation, not the doctor's!, and we are not seeing any return of side effects yet. He did have a bit of the puffy face, and is a bit compulsive, but we don't know if that's because of his Alzheimer's or the Prednisone.

I wanted to let some other know, as I've done a lot of reading/research, looking at the prescribing and pharmakinetics of the drug, it seems important that the taper is most critical when you are nearing 5 mg. This is because 5 mg is about the amount that your body naturally makes, so if your adrenal glands have stopped making it, it would take some time for them to 're-awaken'.

Therefore, the typical recommended tapering schedule is something like 10 mg per week, then slowing it down at 10 mg, and then real slow at 5 mg, eventually going to like 1 mg pills, as you try to continue down to no pills.

While I think Prednisone did put an end to a life-threatening inflammation for my father, I like many others would have liked much more upfront info and options from the docs. We are now on a slow 3 month taper schedule, that nobody realized we'd have to do when we started.

BTW, my dad has mild/moderate swelling in his ankles and toes, but nothing in his hands or abdomen. We don't know if it's because of his loss of weight, muscle and weakening of his heart, and/or some interference with his adrenal-regulation from an ACE inhibitor, Lisinopril, that he is on for his hypertension, or the Prednisone.

Any advice on the swollen ankles would be appreciated.