Turning up again...now what?

[Pirnilla]

As I told you I have had to turn up again from 5/3.75 mgs because of pain in my lower back and stiffness in the right side of my neck. I have now tried 8.75 for 5 days, but still have a bit of each. That makes me sad and anxious. I would like to go back to 5 now after these 5 days, but I obviously haven’t breaken the flare at the level of 8,75. Before this I was totally pain free tapering down to 5 mg. I have a phone call booked with my reumy today. It’ll be interesting to hear here point of view.

There is probably someone here with experiences of this situation. Please, share it with me!

[Soraya_PMR]

Try some simple analgesia (paracetamol) regular doses for 48 hours and see if the pain reduces. It might be due to something other than PMR, or it might be a ‘PMR add-on’, unhappy muscles that might be relaxed by a chiropractor or appropriate exercises.

[SnazzyD]

Sorry to query the obvious, but have you done anything repetitive or for a sustained period like weeding?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Not all pain and stiffness is directly PMR - you can have what I call "Add-ons" that cause back muscle pain and sore necks. Piriformis syndrome will cause lower back pain and myofascial pain syndrome anywhere else.

Try a warm hot water bottle on the sore area. And maybe Capsaicin or an NSAID topical cream/gel.

[Pirnilla in reply to PMRpro]

I talked to my reumy today. She thought it might be my PMR bothering me as these symptoms are the same that started my PMR Journey. She wants me to stay on 8,75 til end of may to see if it will go away. My bloods were just fine. I do take NSAID tonight to see if that may help my body to let go of the pain. Today I have been feeling a lot better, fingers crossed.

[Pirnilla in reply to PMRpro]

My back is actually a bit better now but my neck is still stiff every morning. From today I try to take 10 mgs to try to get rid of it. As I have been totally (!) pain free down to 5 mg this is so depressing but seems necessary. Let's hope 10 is enough.