Posted , 14 users are following.
I was wondering is it common to experience the PMR muscle pain mainly at night?
I take pain killers before bed but wake up quite a few times with deep muscle pain in the thighs and lower outer calves.
Does anyone also suffer from tendonitis?
0 likes, 45 replies
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Loulie Nolal2
Posted
Hi Nola, I think that if you are on the right dose of prednisolone, then you should not suffer pain at night or at any other time as a result of PMR. Have you considered any other cause of that pain? I have had a slipped disc and have developed spinal stenosis and these kind of back/hip problems can cause massive pain at night, which steroids do not address. You might want to get that checked out. And, yes, it seems that tendonitis is quite common with PMR - I guess a weakening of the muscles, which is a side effect. Before my PMR was diagnosed I had a 'mallet finger' when taking a pair of socks off (!!) and then very painful tendonitis in my left ankle. Best of luck with finding out the cause of your night pain.
EileenH Loulie
Posted
Unfortunately, even on the higher doses of pred not everyone with PMR is totally pain-free. A lot of people are very upset when their doctor has told them they'll be "back to normal" and then find they aren't! There are a few very lucky people who are pain-fee - even fewer are back to normal altogether.
Nolal2 Loulie
Posted
EileenH Nolal2
Posted
Tendonitis is part of PMR, especially in hands and feet and arms. I had sore knees that went away with the pred - maybe that was tendons too.
You don't say what dose of pred you are on, but I'd suggest that either your dose isn't quite high enough or that you are one of the people for whom the antiinflammatory effect of pred doesn't last the full 24 hours - it can be 12-36 hours depending on the person. Many people find splitting the dose as perhaps 2/3 in the morning and the rest in the evening deals with overnight pain.
Do you wake all through the night or is it in the early hours, about 4-4.30 or so? Every morning the body sheds a new supply of the inflammatory substances, cytokines, that cause the inflammation. pain and swelling of PMR at about that time - I used to wake then with agonisingly sore hips. If I woke earlier, say 3am, I could get up and go to the bathroom with no problems, if it was later, say 5am, I was so stiff and sore it was hard to walk.
Painkillers don't usually help at all in PMR (a few people say they get some relief but probably from add-on things rather than the PMR itself) - it is pred that you use to relieve the pain and that is why it is important to take a high enough dose. But as I say, splitting it sometimes gets enough effect from the same dose.
Nolal2 EileenH
Posted
amkoffee EileenH
Posted
I can agree with you on the pain relievers. I have a bad back that gives me chronic pain and so therefore I'm on opiates for it. My PMR popped up just a few months ago and the opiates hardly touched the pain. I hurt so bad even on the opiates. That's why I thought I was glad I was on the opiates because if it was this bad pain then I couldn't believe people who were not on painkillers how they could stand it. But hearing you say that pain pills don't kill the pain of PMR explain that to me.
Daniel1143 Nolal2
Posted
Eileen is right on the mark. For me, it feels like a biorhythm that falls in sync with my body's temperature cycle. When I body's coolest – 3 to 5 AM – I flare. As my body warms during the morning the inflammation seems to ebb. In the afternoon I'm fine. 4:30am the next morning, and it starts all over again.
The only place I will differ is with this observation: I have found that if I take ibuprofen in the late evening before I go to bed, I always feel little better in the morning than if I do not. Somehow or other the ibuprofen seems to interrupt the inflammation cycle many hours later. Don't know why, but this is my observation.
gillian82551 Daniel1143
Posted
I have been advised by GP not to take Iboprofen as you should not take anti inflammatory drugs whilst on steroids.
maurice1962 gillian82551
Posted
Anhaga Daniel1143
Posted
My understanding is that the anti-inflammatories like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, deal with pain which is additional to PMR as such. Before I was diagnosed I thought my pain was due to arthritis, and wouldn't take medication for it as I thought my body was better off drug free. But I was almost grateful whenever I had a headache and took aspirin because I knew I'd feel a bit better all over from that, so it certainly helped to some degree, but what was it really helping? Wish I knew. I don't think it can have had any effect on my loss of range of motion, however. Can't remember.
EileenH Anhaga
Posted
The non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) SHOULD have a bit of effect in PMR but I imagine it only works in very mild cases. It is actually mentioned in the Guidelines - but I've yet to meet anyone it really worked for.
Anhaga EileenH
Posted
It was really only a minor improvement, but certainly discernible. I didn't take it regularly having heard that aspirin is actually bad for osteoarthritis. This is during the time the dr was prescribing celebrex, which I wouldn't buy. I'd look up its possible side effects and wonder why it was even on the market....
EileenH Anhaga
Posted
The other cox-inhibitors aren't - although it was a disputed, so many patients DID benefit from them. Celebrex is still there as the least-worst. How, I fail to understand - when there is an 81% increase in gastrointestinal adverse effects...
Anhaga EileenH
Posted
As I'd had this relatively minor I suppose history of gastric issues including at least two major bleeds in the course of my life it seemed irresponsible of her to prescribe this med - but then she was the one who didn't catch the PMR.
EileenH Anhaga
Posted
It's like using Naproxen "fewer gastric side effects" and the GPs believe it - less is NOT the same as NONE!