Increase prednisone when traveling?
Posted , 9 users are following.
i currently am on 6 1/2 mg. prednisone, having dropped to this level 10 days ago. monday we are leaving for a 2-3 day cross country drive back to our summer residence. a fellow pmr friend told me that her doctor told her to always increase prednisone a little when traveling. how much should i increase? i could go up by just a half milligram, but i dont know whether that will be enough, given the stress of a long car trip--im already stressed from packing. thanks.
0 likes, 7 replies
EileenH Twopies
Posted
A couple of mg just for the day is probably plenty. I only do it for a long haul flight - but then, nothing fazes me travelling and with the car I don;t have to haul luggage around!
Reeceregan Twopies
Edited
Oddly, I always suffer so much more pain when we travel, mostly are between 2 - 4 hour trips but no one ever suggested increasing the pred and I never thought of it. Sometimes I'm not on pred at the time anyway so I eat strong pain killers which hardly give any relief so I have a miserable break away. This makes so much sense, perhaps a very short "top up" over a week may be the way to go, although I'm going to wait to see what the brains trust say on the subject first. Hopefully they'll be along soon.
I'm just surprised you can actually go on the trip. We are still ordered to stay home, not leave home unless it for an "essential" shopping or dr trip, no driving around sightseeing, no going to our holiday homes etc. Social distancing and groups of no more than 2. They opened the beaches the other day, eveyone went, no social distancing, ....so the next day they were closed again. Some people still don't get t it.
Twopies Reeceregan
Edited
we arent restricted from traveling. its risky for us immune-compromised persons--at first we decided to stay put and ride it out but people here arent taking it seriously, they dont want to social distance or wear masks, they think its much ado about nothing. we will be safer at home. taking our food, pillows, sheets, wipes, masks, sanitizers.
artfingers Twopies
Posted
When I returned from Florida to our home in MIchigan back in late March, I think I only upped my dose one gram. I only take 4.5 now (split dose) and that worked but Eileen is more in the know. See how your body feels I should think. That was a 2 day all day drive and I was stiff, but that seemed to work. Please stay super safe, wipes, gloves for gas pumps, purell, masks... all that. We brought our own food and snacks (sandwiches, fruit, snacks, water). The least contact with others the better. Wipe down hotel rooms. Good luck.
AllyCD Twopies
Edited
This forum is amazing. I am 71 on 3rd year with preds starting on 15 now on 5. I remembered your comments on travelling and wondered if this could apply to physical exercise. Sprayed nettles this morning with knapsack on rough ground then experienced PMR hip and shoulder pain two hours later. Took paracetamol and rested a couple of hours and it receded but left me feeling weak and trembling. I guess I over did it..
Twopies AllyCD
Posted
yep, it applies to exercise as well--i can attest to that. if i overexercise, i never up my dose, i just rest for however long it takes for the pain to subside. maddening, for sure, as at least for me, it takes so little to rile up the ole ugly pmr reminder.
i am longing to pull a few weeds in our neglected flower beds--to accomplish this, i take my tools, my little stool and my timer set at 10 minutes. as i said--maddening that i cant do it longer. but i just cant.
sometimes i overdo it without ever knowing why. it seems that pmr sends a reminder whether it has a trigger or not--at least for me. and im not one of the "lucky ones"--im never pain free, not even in the beginning at higher doses. (split dose, switching to evening dose, upping the dose, nothing helps. im just not pain free. but when i overdo it--yeow! it lets me know!
AllyCD Twopies
Posted
That makes sense. Explains why I sometimes feel worse for no reason. Don't know why I didn't think of it before. Thank you - I 'll just let those nettles grow now!