How can I wean myself off hydrocortosone safely?

[melanie2015]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2010 been on 10mg of Hydrocortosone for 1 year and 4 months by my old Endo now I have a new Endo who had done labs for my thyroid says my thyroid is fine, but my symptoms are low energy, hair falling out in clumps, can't lose weight if I exercise 3 days out of the week I'm in bed for two days. He's telling me that I should never have been on Hydrocortosone in the first place my adrenals are fine according to the labs. He said he wants me to wean off of it I told him I only have 10 pills left with no refills he said to split the 10 mg in have and take a half a pill until the six are gone. But I have been doing research and have heard horror stories of weaning of to quickly and in my opinion 6 pills is to quick! Has anyone had this experience? Please tell me your situation.

[rumpled]

I would also think that your doc should have done a stim test first to make sure your adrenals are functioning before your wean.

You may not have had AI but your adrenals have taken a hit from being on them for a year... It is only 10mg so that is why your doc is telling you to wean down he is thinking it is way less than a normal replacement dose which is 15-20 on up depending on the Doctor.

Look up the symptoms of a crisis and make sure people around you know you are weaning and that you need to be taken to an er and told what is going on if you start vomiting.  

That is a fast wean.

[ggreg]

Hey Melanie!
See my post down a few from yours, I talk about going off hydrocortisone.  It has to be done VERY slowly, so your instincts are correct.  While this endo thinks half pill x 12 will work, ask him to please prescribe you a couple refills on your drug, since you heard it can backfire if you go off it too fast, it's just the nature of the drug.  I mean, after what I went thru, NO WAY would I go off it AT ALL, but I HAVE to take it for life.  With you, you just want to be safe going off.  When my endo and I tried to go off it, as an experiment, I condensed his very-long method of going off the drug, and I wound up a lunatic and had to be put in the hospital for most of the summer.  Ask your family doc or go see another endo and please ask them to write you up a simple chart of how much to take for how long, and then how much to reduce, and so forth.  You could even ask THEM to prescribe enough hydro to get you through weaning off it.  Gail