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SED rate up 10 43

Posted , 7 users are following.

DebbieHurts
DebbieHurts

I wonder if a bad cold makes your sed rate higher?  I am taking 12 mg of prednisone and still hurting Maybe it's all the coughing?  Some months ago I was down to 8 mg and very much in pain and my SED was 30.  So the only time I really felt well was when I first was given a big dose at the start of my PMR diagnosis last January.  This is tough!

2 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • DebbieHurts
    DebbieHurts

    Posted

    That 10 should read to! in the title.
  • pat38625
    pat38625 DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Hi Debbie, I am a newbie but I have read that ESR can be raised when you have a cold or any type of infection going on.  But I will leave it to the experts on here who are in a better position than myself, they have loads of experience.  
  • pat38625
    pat38625 DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Also depending on your age (I have just turned 60) my ESR should be 19 or 20.  Check with Eileen, she has a medical background and Mrs O is very knowledgable.   Hope you feel better soon.

    Pat

  • tina-uk_cwall
    tina-uk_cwall DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Hi Debbie, like pat I'm not expert enough to answer your dilemma, but as pat has said any infection will raise your SED rate. Debbie just a thought if you started preds last January perhaps if you're already at 8 mgs you've reduced just a little on the quick side? Christina 
  • MrsO-UK_Surrey
    MrsO-UK_Surrey DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Debbie, I echo what Christine has said - if you felt well after commencing steroids a year ago but have not felt well since, then it does point to you having reduced the steroids too soon, especially perhaps in those very early days.  It's such a shame if that is what has happened especially as you obviously had such a good early response to the starting dose.

    Yes, it is possible for the ESR to rise in response to any infection/virus, including the common cold.  However, in view of your pain levels it may be that your ESR is also raised as a result of uncontrolled inflammation.

    A normal ESR for women is considered to be anything between 0 and 20 (slightly more elevated in the elderly).

    Also, bear in mind that flares in the disease can be quite common in the first 12-18 months of treatment - reducing very very slowly down through the doses can help to avoid such flares, plus it enables us to see more easily at which point any symptoms start to resurface so that we can quickly return to the previous dose before the inflammation takes hold again.

    Have you had your Vitamin D levels checked?  Any severe deficiency can lead to pain similar to that of PMR, and the Calcium plus Vit D pills won't do the job of increasing any such deficiency back to normal - only a high dose course of pure Vit D3 will do that.

    You may need to go back to 15mg for a few days and see if your pain improves.  If it does, then you will need to remain there for a couple of weeks - at least until your cold is better - and then start reducing again but very much more slowly than you may have done in the past.

    Meanwhile, lemon glycerine and honey for that cold.  If you don't already take it, Manuka honey, though expensive, can help our immune systems, our digestive system and has many benefits.  Garlic is also excellent at keeping colds away.   

  • ptolemy
    ptolemy DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Hi Debbie a respiratory infection can raise both your ESR and CRP. You need to have another blood test after the cold and see if the blood markers have gone down, just one test does not necessarily give you the full picture. The trouble is we are pushed to reduce all the time, you have the pain not them, so ensure you are comfortable with the dose. Also don't reduce if you have a cold. 

     

  • DebbieHurts
    DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Thank you all for replying.  I see my rheumatologist Wed.  I am 60 in the US.  The other test he had me do last time was Stat C-Reactive Protein.  I was ..65 in the range of 0 to .75.  Not sure what that means?  This cold is endless, it seems.
    • twigjean
      twigjean DebbieHurts

      Posted

      I'm a retired Medical Technologist, in USA ( me too) you have a normal CRP. The difference between UK and USA normal ranges is they are reported in different units. So when someone from UK says their CRP is 7.5mg/that is very similar to our o.75mg/dL. Also, CRP's are methodology dependent. ESR are almost universally done by the same manual method. And they have sex and age normals. You can google ESR and find normals.

      Has I have never done a CRP or ESR on me before PMR, I can't speak for when they elevate. Here in the States we are moving away from ESR and only doing CRPs. When I had my cold/flu last month my CRP was not elevated.

      What I have learned from Mrs O and Ellien H ( sorry if I don't have your name right ) is to listen to my body and follow its clues, and not to worry.

      Hopefully sooner or later this PMR will leave.😊😉😊

       

  • twigjean
    twigjean DebbieHurts

    Posted

    PS What do we consider eldery. I'm 74 and not eldery yet.

     

    • constance.de
      constance.de twigjean

      Posted

      That's a good one:  What do we consider eldely?  Most of us would probably consider  70 as a good start (I'm 75).  However, some days we are in our 60s and other days definitely 80s!!!
  • EileenH
    EileenH DebbieHurts

    Posted

    Not only will a cold or any other infection raise your SED (ESR) but having the cold is an extra stress on the body and will tend to make the PMR flare. 

    You say "big dose" - how big? Part of the reason for using the recommended 15-20mg starting dose is that only PMR responds to that moderate dose. If high doses are used then other forms of inflammatory arthritis which can resemble PMR when they first start will also improve with those levels of pred. 

    Some people are never pain-free - it may also suggest that either something else is going on alongside the PMR or that the diagnosis is not correct.

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