When will muscle weakness & pain go?

I've posted about suffering with this previously but thought that it would have gone by now as I'm down to 10mg maintenance dose of pred now and have been for 3 weeks now.

I asked my cons about this but he didn't seem overly concerned (neither am I worried I just want it to go away).

Can anyone who's had this let me know their experience of how long it takes for your muscles to get back to normal or am I being impatient?

Thanks x

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We are all different so cannot give you an answer as such, all that I can say is that when I get to a dose where pain becomes an issue I treat it with regular painkillers, such as paracetamol. Also once I get pain related to pred reduction it is usually my own inflammatory issues kicking in, which tells me that perhaps the dose I have reached is a bit too low for my body to manage on. But I am on permanent oral steriods. How quickly have you been reducing your pred? Perhaps it might be better to take the whole process a little more slowly. In the meantime pace yourself, don't put your body through too much at any one time as that is only likely to make you feel more frustrated with the pain. Warm baths and hot water bottles to help you relax, will also help to manage the pain. I have learnt from pain management courses that sometimes chronic pain is hard to deal with and get rid off, but there are plenty of coping strategies that can be used to cope.

1: Try not to get stressed about it, that only makes it harder to deal with.

2. Pace yourself, as pain is the body's way of telling you to slow down.

3. Use pain relief like Paracetamol on a regular basis, as keeping a small amount of pain relief within the body constantly is better than swallowing strong painkillers when the pain becomes unbearable.

4. Use warmth like a bath or hot water bottle too it helps.

5. Gentle exercise can also be helpful, so if the wind bags are up to it, a gentle walk can be helpful.

6. And finally distraction methods are great if the pain is just in the background, plug in your MP3 player, doing a hobby or watch the goggle box.

I live with chronic pain much of the time, and despite having Morphine available when ever I want it, try my best to get by by using the above advice. And much of the time it does work.

Sorry I cannot offer any further advice, pain affects us all differently. Hope you feel better soon, and well done for reducing the pred because that is hard!

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Thanks katina, that's really helpful

I've been on pred on and off for q couple of years and on permanently for 5 and a half months

I definitely find hot baths help but then I have difficulty getting out the bath because of the muscle weakness :-S

Thanks for the ideas, especially the distraction one!!

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How do you get out of the tub? I find it easier to roll over onto tummy, and get up using my knees as opposed to pushing up with arms!

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Yep, I do too lol! Very elegant