Shoulder pain description?

I have an appointment Thursday... but am in considerable pain. If the consensus here was that it might be PMR then I'd probably up my dose of prednisone. but the consensus is that's it's probably an injury. so I'll just deal with it.

thanks for all the responses!

Have you tried icing?

yes Eileen I did. icing worked in the beginning but does little if anything now.. thanks

I prefer moist heat

you can buy a heating pad with an option of moist pad or wet a small towel & put it next to your skin & put the heating pad on top of the towel

it may help with the pain. good luck

Thank you Irene. I have not tried that -- only ice. I'll certainly give it a try

YES! Upper arm as well as shoulder. And I can't lean back on my shoulder blade for long -- it also starts hurting. I'll mention this to the doc when I see him Thursday. Thanks so much.

Hi bob73443

I am no longer taking pred i tapered off them approx 1 and a half years ago. After tapering off pred i had shoulder bursitis in my right shoulder when getting down to lower dose pred. Then approx 2 months later i got it in my left shoulder. My rheumy sent me for an Ultrasound scan to confirm shoulder bursitis. I was then given cortisone injections which took the pain away and lasted 6- 8 weeks. My rheumy said i was allowed 3 injections per year. In all i have had six injections. The pain has abated considerably and am now going to physio to ease the remaining pain. My rheumy has discharged me and i am now under the care of a shoulder specialist who has told me if, after 6 weeks of physio the pain has not completely gone, then i will have surgery.....

Mary,

This does not sound encouraging.

Again I am wondering whether or not we (I) should simply stick to a reasonable dosage of prednisone rather than having to deal with either repeated injections (which in themselves will weaken the tendons) or surgery.

Have you ever considered going back on prednisone when you experience the bursitis?

Hi bob73443

Due to the many side effects i experienced whilst on preds, going back on preds was not on my to do list. I thought 'why go through all that again when the bursitis will still be there ( as bursitis is an integral part of PMR) every time i reached a low dose.' My rheumy gave me the choice preds or injections. I decided to take the bull by the horns and go on with the injections which did provide great relief. I have been assured by my shoulder specialist that many of his patients have been successful with physio to eliminate the pain. Only time will tell for me because i have not started the physio yet i am waiting for an appt. However, if physio is not successful i am happy to go ahead with surgery. I am not anxious about it i want to be rid of the pain even though it is nowhere near as bad as it was initially. I have no other PMR pain but have O/arthritis in my knees and hands for which i take a NSAID Naproxen when i get an OA flare.....i'm lookng forward to being free of the shoulder pain which also radiates to top of my arms and side of neck. As said many times on the forum we are all different in what treatment our bodies respond to, so individually, we have to do what we feel will be of benefit to ourselves in the long run......best wishes in whatever you decide to do..👍😊

thanks for this info. gotta be honest.. I'm wondering why I should not just up my dosage of prednisone to 5 mg. why take NSAIDs or get cortisone shots if the"miracle" drug (at least for me) has helped so much in the past? especially when I read messages like yours?

Do consider whether you should be reducing further - shoulder bursitis is commonly part of PMR itself and maybe you are allowing it in with the reduction. I know there is one aspect that the cortisone injections reduce the level of oral pred required but cortisone injections into joints are also not advised too many times as they can lead to damage of the tendons and in the long term that can be worse than a bit more oral pred.

thank you Eileen. as usual your comments sound right on.

eileen, i currently have hip bursitis in my "bad" hip--a labral tear from 2011 that cant be repaired. im at 5 mg pred, planning to stay there as long as necessary. do you think the bursitis is because ive reduced too far? btw, my non-pmr healthy girlfriend has hip bursitis now too, so maybe ive answered my own question? thank you.

It may be - do you have problems in the other hip, even if lesser?

nope. i had bursitis in that good hip a couple years ago but its fine now. physical therapy fixed it right up. do you think if i increased my pred that the current bursitis would clear up? or at least lessen? im starting physical therapy this week.

to continue the saga, if you think i need to increase, would it be for a few days or increase by a mil or two and start the dsns from there? thanks.

My experience was that hip bursitis took a long time to fade at the start - and since then I have only dealt with it with steroid injections. It's difficult to know so try the PT first and see what happens.

Thanks for your advice Eileen. I wondered if shoulder bursitis was connected with PMR. i looked back on notes, and reduced pred 5.5mg to 5mg last November, and it was around that time my (R) shoulder started aching, predominantly in the evenings. The radiologist stated that the nature of busitis worsens at rest. So, it has been 6 months since i reduced to 5mg, and considered I Should try to reduce to 4.5mg. I have reached the half way mark in the reduction. I have on the odd occasion noticed slight aches in my (L) shoulder. Do you think I am reducing too fast?

Just remember you are not reducing relentlessly to zero - you are looking for the lowest dose that manages the symptoms as well as the starting dose did so you can't say you are halfway, or at any other point really. I'd be inclined to say you got there at 5.5mg. Bursitis in the shoulders and hips is characteristic of PMR - as is stiffness that increases after rest.

thanks for you input Eileen. To clarify being half way, I mean half way through the DSNS reduction of 0.5mg. aiming for 4.5mg. I didnt know that shoulder bursitis was characteristic of PMR. I now think that I should go back to 5mg for awhile longer.

At least!!

thank you for you input.

cheers