Can you have pmr without stiffness.
Posted , 14 users are following.
Can anybody tell me can you have pain in shoulders and hips without stiffness with pmr .
0 likes, 39 replies
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Notes on Can you have pmr without stiffness.
EileenH patricia71865
Posted
Probably. Everyone experiences PMR differently and what you call pain I might call stiffness - the pain restricts what I can do and so I think I am stiff. Like the pain/stiffness post exercise.
karenfizz patricia71865
Posted
I have no pain or stiffness in my shoulders/hips, which is what I had when diagnosed with pmr in May this year, and am now doing the DSNS method to go from 10 to 9mg. However, I have a lot of hand stiffness which takes till about 2pm to settle. I'm unsure whether this is the pmr because I am reducing, or is it osteo pain because of being a physio for almost 40 years doing massage etc. so I know that I have age related changes in knuckles etc but it never gave me pain before.
Anyone had similar?
PS I too was on spit dose of a third at night and remainder in morning, but since getting to 10 or 9 I have dropped the pm dose.
EileenH karenfizz
Posted
I get hand pain if I am flaring - whatever the reason for the flare. It really is a sign for me that the dose is a bit low.
Twopies EileenH
Posted
how high do you go back up and how long do you stay there before trying to reduce again? and when you do reduce, do you go back to where you were or do you start all over again from your increase? thanks!
EileenH Twopies
Posted
It depends - if it is an increase in the disease activity then I usually have to go back to 15mg and it is a few months before I can reduce much at all. If it was because I have reduced a bit too far then I go up a couple of mg and let it settle and then go back to 1mg above where I flared.
richard07199 EileenH
Posted
Eileen,
How do you differentiate between reducing a bit too far, and an increase in disease activity?
EileenH richard07199
Posted
If you have recently reduced and the symptoms return - you overshot the mark. If you have been on a steady dose for some time and the symptoms reappear - it is more likely to be increasing disease activity. I've been on fairly steady doses when it has happened to me so it was fairly obvious. And just adding 1 or 2mg wasn't enough to manage the symptoms - so I have ended up returning to high enough doses to do that.
richard07199 EileenH
Posted
Thank you. That's clear enough. The thing that I have to keep reminding myself is that reducing to zero pred is NOT the objective. The objective is to get to the lowest dose that controls the symptoms.
Pred does not cure PMR, it just keeps the symptoms at bay until PMR gets bored with your body and moves on to someone else.
lynda62707 richard07199
Posted
Oh, no....don't wish this mess on someone else!!😜😁
missmagwumps karenfizz
Posted
I wonder if your hand stiffness is due to the steroid itself....I didn't have any pain in my hands other than general slight arthritic fingers with age and could make a good fist when first diagnosed but the steroids can cause a lot of fluid retention and my hands are bigger than usual....I can only think mine is fluid causing them to be tight! Just a thought.....x
Anhaga patricia71865
Posted
Initially I would have said that I wasn't really "stiff". I had a lot of pain which made it hard to move for the first couple of steps after getting up, for example, but I didn't describe it as stiffness. I hadn't lost any range of motion. Eventually it got so bad I started to lose my ability to do things, but that was always because it hurt so much. You wouldn't say you were "stiff" if you had an injury which stopped you from moving your arm fully, would you?
So I think there's a problem with definition of symptoms when doctors talk about morning stiffness, and stiffness in specific areas, when a patient like myself would simply say they had pain all over....
lynda62707 Anhaga
Posted
my stiffness is Acute and mainly in my hands/fingers! while typing this right now, my fingers are cramping so badly....and yes, very stiff! (almost painful)!...
Anhaga lynda62707
Posted
But I bet your symptom is not what you'd call "morning stiffness" is it?
lynda62707 Anhaga
Posted
huh??? I'm not sure what you're referring to.."morning stiffness"?
my stiffness is ongoing, all day...in fact it's 2:30pm right now and I can Barely hold my phone as I type this!....am I misunderstanding what you mean?
Anhaga lynda62707
Posted
My point - doctors think "morning stiffness" is a defining characteristic of PMR. I think a lot of us would say what you did - pain all over at any time of day or night.