Is it PMR or due to an ACCIDENT

Ouch! Liz, although you may have injured your spine as a result of the fall, it is quite possible for the trauma of the fall to trigger a flate in your PMR symptoms. Blood test markers were always a good guide for me, too, so that may provide an answer as to whether or not the fall has upset the PMR apple cart - an X-ray of your spine may be the next step otherwise. It was a fall off a train with a steep drop to the platform in the dark that resulted in me being diagnosed with spondylolisthesis - the platform had now been raised! The person behind you on the steps had a narrow escape thanks to you! Good luck!

What a nasty event.  I hope you feel better soon.  I wonder if you should consider your pain from the point of view of one who had never had PMR?  I'm not surprised you hurt.  A couple of things are probably going on.  One is, you may have some bruising, not necessarily showing up as a mark on the skin.  You jarred your back which can have upset some nerves and is causing the pain.  And I have found myself that a small injury can become magnified if things tense up, and you might not even be aware that you've tensed up.  Some years ago I was walking to work and part of my route took me to a short but steep hill I had to go down.  It looked wet to me, but turned out to be covered in slick "black ice".  So my feet went out, and I slammed very hard onto the concrete pavement.  My fall was broken slightly by my backpack, but the water bottle inside was dented.  At work all day I was in total agony.  Stayed there because I figured I might as well be in pain at work as at home.  But when I finally did get home I collapsed into a chair and stayed there for a while, and felt all the tension in my back go away and the pain reduced.  It then occurred to me that my back had been in a state of tension all day because I'd not given myself a chance to relax.  Since then I've learned that we can get very tense back muscles and never even know.  So this is my longwinded way of suggesting that you probably aren't experiencing a PMR flare, but more likely some unpleasant result of the jarring you received.  Perhaps a trip to a physiotherapist would be in order?

It could have started a flare - it has happened to me. Otherwise the others have already said what I'd have said.

Hi Liz

I'm in my 5th year of PMR and trying to reduce to 3 1/4 mgs of prednisone. 

About a month ago I lifted something in the garden and twisted the wrong way and re-injured my piriformis muscle. I had several physio treatments and think I have recovered. However I did increase my prednisone and am just starting to reduce down to where I was. 

My assumption is that the injury caused my inflammation level to go up and since my adrenals cannot respond to produce more cortisol for the injury, I must increase my prednisone. Even tho my piriformis muscle is ok, I am still having lots of trouble with fatigue.  I am currently trying to decide if the bad fatigue is telling me I need to take a higher dose of prednisone for a few more days or if my prednisone dose is ok but I just need more time to let my body get stable again. 

 

I suffer from chronic pain in my lower back and have suffered for 13 years and because of it I have to take opiates to control the pain. So from the bottom of my heart I stressed strongly that you go see your doctor and request more than just an x-ray. Obviously your doctor's going to want to start out with a regular X-ray and that's the normal course of things. But if an x-ray does not show anything and your pain continues I would request that he do an MRI if I were you. Simply because an MRI will show more damage than an x-ray will. Of course you'll want to keep up with your PMR and treating it as a flare in case that's what it is and it is possible that the prednisone will help reduce back pain too.

Thanks to all you good people who have commented, still in pain, can't wait for the Dr's tomorrow! Liz