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Would taking Tylenol to help reduce my Pred only result in blood markers rising and a major flareup?

Posted , 10 users are following.

leonard12916
leonard12916

I'm stuck at 7 mg of Prednisone for my PMR.  My doctors say 'reduce, reducuce' but I only have more stiffness if I do.  If I starting taking Tylenol to mask the stiffness I could certainly reduce my Prednisone for awhile but I suspect my blood markers would rise and ultimately I'd have a major flareup.  Would you agree?

0 likes, 12 replies

12 Replies

  • jean39702
    jean39702 leonard12916

    Posted

    If Tylenol is helping it's likely not PMR pain.  I take Tylenol to help with myofascial pain or arthritic pain, but it never touches the bilateral PMR pain that rears up when I do too much. Nor does it help with the chronic leg issues associated with my PMR.

    You're at a critical point where it's important to slow down reductions.  If you search the forum I believe you will see plenty of advice about reaching this level and the importance of reducing by .5 mg ever so slowly to give your body time to wake up and start producing its own cortisone.

  • donna60512
    donna60512 leonard12916

    Posted

    I am farily new here, but I just wanted to say that my rheumatologist was emphatic that I not take Ibuprofen.  He said it would interact with other meds.  He said he only wanted my taking Tylenol arthritis.  There are so many people on here who are so very knowledgeable, much more than I am, but I just wanted to mention that.  I am very interested in readin here about later on going down by .5.  I sure hope I can get through all of this too.  This forum is great.
    • Anhaga
      Anhaga donna60512

      Posted

      Ibuprofen is like aspirin and some others, which can damage the stomach, so best avoided when on pred.  For many of us tylenol is relatively useless as an analgesic so I take my chances, but very carefully, with aspirin.  I need this for headaches (not GCA related).
    • donna60512
      donna60512 Anhaga

      Posted

      I totally agree.  I do have to take one low dose aspirin a day as I suffered from Afib in 2003, thankfully I have never had it again.  I agree about the Tylenol or any of the OTC pain relievers.  They do very little, except as you say for  headache, which fortunately are very rare for me.  I sometimes wish this site had "spell check" although it annoys me on other things.  LOL  I keep rereading and seeing crazy things that I have typed.  

    • Anhaga
      Anhaga donna60512

      Posted

      I hate sending something off that I've actually proofread, and the moment the green flashing ends I see the typo!  

    • donna60512
      donna60512 Anhaga

      Posted

      LOL Me too!!!  I am a retired teacher, and my own worst critc. :-)
  • ptolemy
    ptolemy leonard12916

    Posted

    I am afraid Tylenol will not reduce your pred. Doctors' main mantra is reduce reduce reduce. They don't have PMR. If you feel OK to reduce go ahead but slowly, at your dose around 0.5mg a month I would have thought, don't be bullied.

  • leonard12916
    leonard12916

    Posted

    Hi All, I appreciate your feedback.  It's a real 'catch-22' here for as I stay on the Pred the side effects are really starting to appear, moreso for me at least at year 3 on it.  If I try to struggle through reducing, ever so slowly, maybe I'll avoid the several flareup I've had when I've tried doing so in the past.  For me Tylenol masks the discomfort but my concern is it doesn't really help me get off the Pred.  I can imagine my blood markers going up while I was taking Tylenol and a major flareup resulting!

    • tina-uk_cwall
      tina-uk_cwall leonard12916

      Posted

      Hello Leonard, I agree with the others. If Tylenol is helping any pain then the pain it is helping is not PMR pain. This drug is not an anti inflammatory, and only anti inflammatories help PMR pain.

      perhaps at the higher doses of preds all this non PMR pain was masked by the high dose of preds and now you have reduced to around 7mgs the dose of preds is unable to control this other pain that is now exposed. This additional pain that maybe is not PMR pain could maybe be treated with another pain killer, and you could continue to reduce the preds as the PMR pain is being well controlled by the preds.

      many of us have other medical issues that result in similar pain to PMR but are not PMR. If this is the case you need to see a specialist who will perform other tests that could result in another diagnosis eg, rheumatoid arthritis, which requires a different drug to control the pain.

      please ask your dr to refer you to a rheumatolist. Good luck, regards, tina

    • kathy67492
      kathy67492 leonard12916

      Posted

      Leonard, I am at 7-1/2m after 2-1/2 yrs, trying to taper to 7m. I have had several unsuccessful attempts to get to 7 that resulted in 2-week long flares...that was in the dead slow, stop method. Now I am trying the super dead slow and stop method....1 day new dose, 6 days old dose, etc.

      after two weeks I am not sure if it will work!! I am having some pain, etc, trying to work thru it...but did not expect to continue to experience pred side effects. PMR is full of surprises!

  • alley2
    alley2 leonard12916

    Posted

    Wow this is the info I need thanks to all. I have GCA and been on 75mg of prednisone since 28 May this year we tried to go to 50mg but that lasted 2 days then back up to 75mg.  Had  my 2nd infusion with the trial drug Actema the next day Doc wanted me to go down to 60mg  steroids tried that started to feel the flair up and put myself back up to 75mg he wanted me to take Endep 25mg tried that nothing no pain relief Ifeel that dropping by 5mg 2 weekly will help me  well hoping had a bad night till midnht  but only been back up to 75mg for 3 days.
  • FlipDover_Aust
    FlipDover_Aust leonard12916

    Posted

    7mg of pred is not a high dose - and if it's working - don't mess with it!

    As everyone else says here, the Dr has no idea how YOU feel - only you can judge whether you can reduce or not.

    I presume you've tried the DSNS method?

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