Discouraged
Posted , 8 users are following.
I'm coming up on 5 years since PMR diagnosis next week. I was down to 2 mg. Medrol in May, and held there as I had my Right Hip replaced on May 20th. Once the pain from the surgery resolved and I started to move around and do the stairs, I felt some pain in the right knee. Since it was only one side, I figured it was related to the surgery, or overdoing the stairs. I had blood drawn maybe 8 wks after the surgery, and even got to about 1.75 mg Medrol, but went back to 2 mg. since it was difficult with both knees going down the stairs, and I was stiff in all the usual PMR places, especially in the AM until the Medrol kicks in. I tried 3 mg. with no real improvement, and now I'm finishing a week at 4 mg. and not really much better. I suppose I need to up the dosage again, but that's really discouraging!!! Your collective wisdom would be appreciated.
0 likes, 7 replies
nick67069 SectionedThrice
Posted
If I suspect a flare, I would go old dose + 5mg for a week or so and then drop back to just above old dose. Sometimes accumulated inflammation needs higher dose to clear it up quickly. Don't be discouraged, you are on very low dose and it usually has minimal or no side effect, so what is the rush?
EileenH SectionedThrice
Posted
Creeping up rarely works - you might have got some result by adding 5mg to where the flare happened, i.e. 7mg-ish. Then a few days should show if it is enough. If it isn't, you might need 10mg to calm things down. Once you feel back to your best (that you have achieved) then you can drop back, say to 5mg and see if it now works. And then carefully investigate 4mg etc.
It isn't really discouraging - what is discouraging is when you ignore it until you have to go back to the start and just a few days at a higher dose doesn't work.
lynda62707 SectionedThrice
Posted
silly question, but is medrol the same thing as prednisone?
rocketman42 lynda62707
Posted
Methylprednisolone ( Medrol) and prednisone both belong to the same class of drugs called glucocorticoids and are very similar.
However, here is a difference in their relative strengths: 8 (mg) of methylprednisolone is equivalent to 10 mg of prednisone.
lynda62707 rocketman42
Posted
thanks for clearing that up for me.
SectionedThrice
Posted
So I'm finishing a week at 8 mg Medrol, double the previous dose. Definite improvement in my hands, but less in my knees. They are still complaining, especially going down the stairs in the early AM and late in the day--around 6 hrs. after taking Medrol things are much better. I'm debating whether I need to go up even more, maybe another 2 mg. at night, so 10 mg, (which Rheumy always says that 8 + 2 is more than 10) or more than that.
SectionedThrice
Posted
So I was feeling quite good on Monday and had blood drawn, but then in the evening realized that I was coming down with a head-cold which could have factored into ESR=58, CRP= 46.2. That was at 8 mg. Medrol, but I decided to go back down to 4 mg. the next day. Meanwhile I've been emailing back and forth with my rheum. and he wants me to have my knees x-rayed. "If the x-rays do not make a clear diagnosis then an MRI is worth doing just to be sure there is no steroid medication related injury to the knee. "Really?