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[Cazdud]

Hi,trying to get off predisilone for polymialgia down to 2mg a day .been told blood tests show normal but when I stop gradually I get pain in my fingers on waking. Doc says arthiritis. When I increase dose pain decreases. Is this normal?

[Nanna71]

That is normal for PMR because pred. is the only treatment for this disease while other meds figure in for RA. Looks like you need specific info. which can be found on the PMR/GCA forum. You have probably reached the dose where your adrenals need to come back to life so you can stop the pred. Our adrenals shut down the making of pred. when you take pred. medication.

Here on the RA forum, pred. is used as a 'bridging drug' used until the Dmards or? kick in. Still just as difficult to taper off of. I apparently have RA and PMR so have been gleaning info. on both sites.

[Cazdud in reply to Nanna71]

Thanks for the information. Do you think I should stop taking and hope it improves on its own?

[Nanna71 in reply to Cazdud]

No. I think you should read the more knowledgeable people's posts on the PMR site and then make your decision.

[oldtimer]

What sort of arthritis does the doctor think you have in your fingers? Prednisolone will reduce inflammatory arthritis, so you might need to have that possibility looked at. It is also not uncommon for people with PMR to go onto a diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis, and there are other blood tests apart from the ones for inflammation (used for PMR) for this. Have you had any of those done?

[Cazdud in reply to oldtimer]

Hi, not to sure but I think they tested for everything. I don't think the doc knew too much about it just said a touch of arthiritis. Just have pain and stiffness for a couple of hours in the morning. I am a drummer so a bit worrying. Thanks for the reply.