How to tell if this is a flare up or not
Posted , 12 users are following.
Hi all. I've had PMR for about 3 years now and have been reducing the preds in an up and down fashion and am currently on 2mg, my GP has allowed me to manage it myself to a large degree offering advice when asked. Like a lot of older men, I'm 68, I suffer with arthritis.
I'm now getting very achey to the point of being painful in my shoulders, thighs. and fingers. I know the fingers may not be PMR but when I was diagnosed I had trouble there and it went when I started preds.
How do I tell if it's PMR or arthritis. I thought that if I were to take 10mg of Pred and it cleared up that would suggest PMR ( when I was diagnosed 15mg had an effect within 5 hours). if it had no effect it would suggest that it wasn't. My real question is...if the second senario was to be the case suggesting it wasnt PMR could I drop straight back to 2mg or will I have to start the reduction again?, It's a pity that my GP ( or GP's in general) don't do a question and answere web site, it will take about 10 days to get an appointment.
0 likes, 8 replies
EileenH steve_1
Posted
If you take a higher dose just for a week or so you can drop back to the previous dose, it's just like someone being given pred for a week when they aren't on it, just a higher baseline.
How long had you been on 2mg before the aches appeared? Beware - you will probably need 3mg after clearing out the accumulated inflammation.
whitefishbay EileenH
Posted
Thanks Eileen. I think you answered my question before I asked it. I was down to 1mg as my rheumy wants me off pred in the next month or so. So 1 mg was ok (not perfect but I could cope). So I thought I would try 1 mg every other day). On Monday I work in a shelter preparing food for a @ 2 hours. I love it and the people are lovely. My feet (the tops of my feet) were killing me. I couldn't wait to waddle out of there. I have a good 1/2 mile to get to my car. Well I walked slower and slower like Frankenstein. Got home and could hardly walk out of my car....anyway Sorry to hijack your chat Steve 1 - I went back to 5 and feel better (not perfect) so I guess I can stay on 5 mg for a few days and then reduce to 2 mg I guess.
As usual PMR is the boss.
Thanks Eileen and everyone. Love you all on this V Day.
EileenH whitefishbay
Posted
Funny - I said something about that on the other forum! Everyone's contributions are useful - a newbie didn't think theirs could be. But often someone asks a question that someone didn't know they needed to or hadn't got round to yet!
steve_1 EileenH
Posted
I have taken about 9 months to get from 5 to 2. I had been comfortable on 2 for about a month but over the past month it's been gradualy getting worse.
I thought maybe I'd try 5mg first and see if that works because life was perfect at that level. 10mg if it didn't work and back to the doctor if that fails
EileenH steve_1
Posted
If life was perfect at 5mg - that's where I'd be!!!!
Frit steve_1
Posted
Good luck and hope you soon get to the bottom of your symptoms and can find some relief.
Magilla53 steve_1
Posted
Hi Steve
I've had Pmr for 14 months now. Started at 20mgs of Prednisone then bumped up to 30 megs ,currently at 7 megs. I have pretty fortunate with no real major flare ups.
However late November my hands started to have pain and stiffness so off to see my G. P , he said it is most likely Arthritis and sent me to x ray clinic. It was confermed as Arthritis. I suffered for about two weeks and then booked an appointment with a Naturalpath and she did a Biomeriden test which is a food reaction test. I came up positive reaction to wheat and soy. The best thing she suggested for me for my Arthritis was taking fish oil 900 mg twice a day. It took about 2-3 weeks for it to start working but now I suffer very little with virtually no pain
arlene85779 steve_1
Posted
I don’t have any answers or advice to give but just to say I too have had pmr for three years and after staying at 2 mg for about 5 months I tapered to 1.5 in December. I had immediate withdrawal symptoms but things settled quickly and I had very few aches over Christmas and New Year .. even though I had a virus which dragged on for about three weeks and was ill. SO I tapered to 1 , using dsns , two weeks ago. About a week later I had aching feet , legs and awful tingling in my feet and hands . My fingers also were swollen. Like you I wasn’t sure if it was a flare or another problem which had been masked at higher doses. Oh and I also had developed itchy rashes in my scalp, lower back and extremely cracked heels and red breaking skin between each finger at 1.5 mg. Anyway aches in legs , hands and feet got worse , as did the tingling. So I went back up to 2mg and after almost a week aches are almost gone and tingling too. Skin is a bit better too. I have no idea if all this is from pmr or some other condition. I had my bloods taken yesterday and have to see doc on Monday. I know this is no help to you but you have a fellow traveller having bother at the low doses 😕