Legs feel heavy

Oh dear you're having a 'lead suit day... had a week of those when I dropped to 19 pred. now on 16 but have had to go back up to 17 after my tooth extraction because I could feel my deep sea diving suit coming on fast. Feel slightly better today so will drop down again by the weekend if it continues.... this is a funny old game believe me!

Hi Andrea many years ago I was sent for body scan as my legs had become heavy like yours & it was hard to lift them. The result came back with no answers. I've since gone on to get PMR so now wondering after reading about your problem was this an early sign of the PMR. It's very frightening with this heavy leg syndrome.

I had heavy leg syndrome for 10 years before PMR. Had numerous test, scans, xrays and saw a few specialist over the years with no diagnosis.  Then PMR hit.  The specialist and pratitioners I have seen now all agree that the previous cement legs of 10 years was likely PMR.  When diagnosed I had developed severe shoulder and arm pain and I was started at 20 mg of prednisone with some improvement, then 25 mg.  After 4 days at 25 mg I had a total meltdown, pain was incredible in neck, shoulders, arms, hips, legs.  I couldn't lift more than I single plate onto a cubboard shelf, toileting and dressing was agonizing, and forget lying in a bed.  Prednisone was upped to 40 mg and 12 hours later I was a new woman.  I even had legs again!  I could actually run up and down stairs.  Unfortunately, I didn't know what I know now, thanks to this fantastic forum and others, and followed a taper schedule set out by the specialist that was too much, too soon and had a relapse at 25 mg.  I tried slowly increasing without success and ended up returning to the 40 mg once again.  My legs did not return.  :-(  I have successfully tapered to 15 mg over the last 11 months and still have cement legs. I remain hopeful that things will improve. 

Andrea, my legs retained a certain amount of stiffness almost all the way down through the doses. Unfortunately, this is part and parcel of PMR, and is worse for some than others.  

Providing you remained on your 20mg starting dose for a good 4-6 weeks, after achieving at least a 70% improvement in your symptoms, then the reduction to 17.5 will hopefully continue to control the inflammation, even though your legs feel heavy.  Do try and have a daily walk within your limits as this will help reduce/tackle the amount of stiffness.

Hi andrea, sorry to hear about your "heavy" legs. I have been working my way down over the last 4 months from 25mg to 14mg a day and have found the same problem. It seemed to get worse from 17mg downwards and like you I sometimes find them hard to lift. I usually walk the dog first thing in the morning for about 1.5 miles which seems to help but the achy bit stays all day. Hopefully as time goes by they will lossen up a little but I may delay my next drop due at the end of the month (down to 13mg) for a few weeks. I have also found that my shoulders have started to ache as well which was a symptom I had originally. Good luck, Dave