If you have a flare up how much do you have to increase pred to get back to pain free state?

[suzieh]

I have managed to gradually reduce to 10 mg (Started at 20 mg in Dec) - all going well but a week ago I started getting some pains in my right shoulder again. Today these have become much worse - my fault maybe as I think I have overdone the exercise ,yesterday I swam, did some gardening and hoovered the house. Now taking 4 hourly ibruprofen - don't really want to go up on the pred.

My questions are ....... Do you think it will settle if I rest and continue Ibruprofen? Is this a flare up which probably needs a Pred increase to sort it? If so how much extra pred? Lastly, if I increase do I then have to do the go slowly approach to reduction again? What would happen if I took say 12mg for a few days to deal with the pain then went back to 10mg quickly?

[polkadotcom]

It's a bit of a question, susieh. If the shoulder pain was already there before you overdid things then it might be a flare, but these things are so individual. I considered it to be a flare if I got all-over pain which didn't go away in 48 hours, but certainly others have reported difficulty with just one limb or joint.

If it hasn't settled by now then I would do as you were saying - put it up to 12.5 for a few days and see if it cleared up. If it did, then problem sorted. If not, then it could possibly be over use of a weak muscle which might need a doctor's appointment and physio.

You say you are taking Ibuprofen. Taking NSAIDS with steroids is not a good idea - see if you can manage without and/or ask your doctor for something else.