How Much Florinef?

[redoctober]

For those who are taking Florinef...how can you tell when you have the dosage just right? I'm trying to slowly adjust my dosage so that I don't get the terrible headaches...but I'm just not sure how to determine how much is enough. I'm at a point right now (.025mg) where my BP/HR will jump from 111/65 (64) to 121/75 (85) getting out of bed in the morning...which is better, but I'm not sure if I should be using that as a gauge or not. Obviously, I don't want the headaches and such...but I'd also love to improve some of my biggest issues, like motility problems.

Speaking of motility, I really do think that poor motility exacerbates the problem for me....when motility is slow, I get more blood pooling in the abdomen, which worsens my symptoms overall.

[abnel]

I am not 100% sure, as this is all new to me too, but I think that until you notice some of the big improvements that Florinef is meant to help with (ie, dizziness, HR, blood pressure) you need to keep trying to titrate up slowly each week until you notice those improvements while at the same time not exceeding the dose prescribed. If you get worse on the higher dose, then you need to back off and probably consult your doctor.

I was also hoping I wouldn't get the classic headache but was willing to try anything and did exactly what the doctor said and went up to 0.2mg within a week and a half, and got the classic Florinef headache. But it went away immediately as soon as I stopped taking Florinef. It wasn't the worst headache I've ever had but it could have gotten a lot worse if I'd persisted with the 0.2mg.

During the time I was on the 0.2mg I noticed my resting and exercise HR was much more settled and my orthostatic tolerance increased, I didn't feel I was going to pass out nearly as much. The things it didn't help me with were breathless particularly during exercise and the giddiness.

I am currently up to 0.1mg. My dizziness and pre-syncope feeling is much improved, my resting HR is a little improved but I seem to be getting spikes in HR during exercise. On the down side, Florinef hasn't helped my breathing issues at all, which is my most debilitating symptom at times.

Good luck and I hope you see some improvements over time.

[redoctober]

I'm still trying to figure out the adjustment period...how long it takes your body to "adjust" to a particular Florinef dosage. My Dr. prescribed .1mg and never said a thing about titrating upward to that level to minimize side-effect. I asked the nurse the other day about this...and she suggested taking .05mg for a while to see if the side-effects are minimized.

I suppose I'd just like to get some feedback from others as to how long one should stick with a particular dose-level (allowing the body to adjust) before deciding that it is too much or too little.