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PMR moving to hands

Posted , 11 users are following.

Dennis123
Dennis123

Has anyone had the pain in their shoulders move to hands. I have had problems in the morning now making a fist with out a large amount of pain, and my knuckles have been swollen.

0 likes, 13 replies

13 Replies

  • peggy_56092
    peggy_56092 Dennis123

    Posted

    In the beginning of my PMR, my fingers were painful and swollen. I could not wear my rings for about six months. Gradually it went away and never came back. I am in my third going on fourth year of PMR and am at 6 to 5 1/2 mgs prednisone.

  • rich38490
    rich38490 Dennis123

    Posted

    I have not experienced that, may not be PMR.

    Best wishes.

    RICH

  • Senormacho
    Senormacho Dennis123

    Posted

    Yes, I have had the same symptoms especially in my right hand. I have had PMR for 2 1/2 to 3 yrs. Did not get the arthritic hands until just recently, though. And it kind of comes and goes so far as its severity. I have been on 15 to 20 mg of pred....just reduced today to 10 mg, Am anxiously awaiting to see what this reduction portends in terms of PMR symptoms.

    • Dennis123
      Dennis123 Senormacho

      Posted

      Did your Doctor give you anything different for the symptoms in your hands?

    • EileenH
      EileenH Senormacho

      Posted

      It would be less of a shock to your body NOT to reduce the dose 5mg at a time! This isn't reducing to get OFF pred, it is tapering to find the right dose for you, the lowest dose that manages the symptoms as well as the starting dose did.

      Top experts in tapering (or titrating) the dose) say no reduction should be more than 10% of the current dose - 15 to 10 is 33%! Other PMR experts say that reducing at more than 1mg per month is predictive of flares. Reducing in such large steps makes it more likely that, not only will you miss the dose you are looking for, but you may experience steroid withdrawal rheumatism, just your body protesting at not getting the dose of pred it is expecting, and it can be so similar to PMR that you (and your doctor) think it is a flare and put you back to a higher dose. By reducing in small steps the body doesn't experience such shocks and you are more likely to identify the "right" dose accurately - and without the pain and disappointment of creating unnecessary flares. Getting into a yoyo pattern with your pred dose is very easy when you jump down the dose - and have to jump up again. And when you yoyo the dose, for some reason it seems more difficult to get things under control again.

      One way of going about it, as well as limiting reductions to 1mg at a time, is to use a slowed taper of this sort:

      https://patient.info/forums/discuss/reducing-pred-dead-slow-and-nearly-stop-method-531439

      which is being used in a clinical study in the north of England and has been used successfully by dozens, probably hundreds now, on the PMRGCA forums.

  • bob03667
    bob03667 Dennis123

    Posted

    Dennis,

    Almost a year ago, my pain started in both shoulders; then went to my upper arms and wrists; then my hips and kupper legs. Had very little swelling in my hands and wrists, but a lot of pain lifting almost anything. With the 20mg of prednisone, that cleared up in a week or so. I'm now down to 7mg prednisone - 5mg in the morning and 2mg at night with the plan to reduce 1mg per month.

    • peggy_56092
      peggy_56092 bob03667

      Posted

      Reducing by 1/2 mg might be better for more than a month and/or whether PMR pops up.

  • bob03667
    bob03667 Dennis123

    Posted

    Peggy,

    Probably when I get down to 5mg (two more months), from there I will probably reduce by 1/2mg per month.

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