CRUISE HOLIDAY

[eggy-18]

Just back from my cruise holiday, before I went I was down to 8mg of pred , I was O.k at the beginning of the trip, crossing the Bay of Biscay was very choppy and I found it hard to keep my feet. Towards the end of my trip the pain was hard to bear, I upped my pred to 9mg but I am still in a lot of pain. My doctor gave me cocodamol 8.5mg for the pain which is not much help. I am having to sit down to prepare my meals (peeling veg etc.) has anyone got any ideas on a way forward.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi eggy-18,

Sorry to hear about your return of pain. The cruise and preamble to it probably took more out of you than you realised. Ships doctor obviously doesn't know illness, if it is a flare then co-codamol will not be any good. The only thing to get you back is to take more Pred - sorry!

You might find an increase to 10mg is enough to catch it before it gets any worse. Hopefully it's just a reaction to your cruise, and not a full blown flare.

Take care.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Then you have to bite the bullet and go back to a considerably higher dose - that will show if it is the PMR flaring. If it doesn't work you can go back down again - but if it does you do have beware this isn't a real flare of the underlying autoimmune disorder - and that will require a higher dose to manage.

I'd suspect the muscle pain could partly have been the effort of using your muscles to remain upright - I gather the Bay of Biscay is a bit like that! But I thought cruise ships had stabilisers...

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to PMRpro]

I think it's the patients that need the stabilisers!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to DorsetLady]

Now there's a thought...

[eggy-18 in reply to PMRpro]

Thankyou PMRpro although it is very rare for me to write a comment, I read the advice and have found it very helpful

[HeronNS]

I think you need a holiday from your holiday.