Hi all, have not posted much really but have been reading most day's.
Anyway 11 weeks back I was told by rheumatologist after almost a day of tests that I have PMR so she started me on 40mg Prednisolone for 4 weeks , then to 30mg for 3 weeks then 20mg for 2 week , and then 17.5mg two weeks and now on 15mg.
I have been doing well with the reduction until I got to the 15mg , been on 15mg for 5 days now but slowly started with pain and stiffness in lower back hips and lower legs , also my arms and wrists . I also have no energy which is like" knock out " fatigue when sometimes I need to have a bit of a sleep.
So my question is should I ride this out for a few more days or should I go back up to 17.5 which I were not so bad with
Oh, the rheumatologist said my ESR was just above normal and CRP was normal ?.
Many thanks.
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iveco
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If it is PMR then why on earth use 40mg to start? That is a GCA dose and far more than is needed for most PMR. It works so much better to start with a lower dose and slow down - a week at 40mg is the same as 2 weeks at 20mg - which will probably achieve far more and reduce the side effects.
What the ESR and CRP levels are is immaterial - about 20% of patients never have levels that are "out of the normal range" but that doesn't mean they don't have PMR.
As you've been on a relatively high dose your inflammation markers would be expected to be normal now. Go back to 17.5 as the others suggested, and then use a slow taper rather than dropping 2.5 mg overnight when you are ready to taper again. Good luck!
PMRpro, she started me on 40mg as she said I was showing some signs of GCA . I did have T.A.B. about a month ago but have not been told the results as of yet but have app with rheumatologist in a couple weeks.
Will go back to 17.5 in the morning and see how that does.
Try taking some magnesium, or maybe soaking in an Epsom salts bath (a foot bath will do if you're a shower person) as the skin will absorb the magnesium quite readily. Magnesium often helps ease cramps as they can be a sign of a magnesium deficiency, not uncommon when we take calcium supplements but don't also make sure we are getting a bit more magnesium one way or another (diet best - eat your leafy greens!).
Ditto the magnesium. I found when I was on higher doses of Pred my tear film dried up though they would water; it just didn’t cover the surface of my eye all the time. Sometimes it felt like someone was sticking pins in my eyes. I had to have false tear eye drops and thicker ones at night. Since being somewhere in single digit doses it has resolved.
Thanks , will look into the magnesium as I do eat quite a lot of leafy greens already and will try anything else to get shut of these cramps.
SnazzyD :
"felt like someone was sticking pins in my eyes"
Yes, it dose feel like that . Found that it eases off when not at work ( HGV Driver ) also will be seeing opticion as it seems looking to the horizon in bright light makes this much worse even though my glasses go quite dark in sunlight.
Sounds very dry eyes like to me - I also had photophobia at one point but it did improve over time with pred. And ditto magnesium - always useful I have discovered.
What is nom de plume ? sounds French but I don't speak French lol
Small update.
Tried to get out of bed this morning but found it a little bit hard to do so, so after some Yakult and some breakfast I went up to 17.5mg pred. Felt stiff until around dinner time then the back / leg and neck stiffness eased quite a lot so will stick with this for now .
Your alias, pseudonym, your avatar name, I think originally a name assumed by someone who didn't want to use their real name when publishing a novel, etc. "Pen name".
As Heron says - your user name! Iveco is our local Fiat garage that does the HGVs and stuff as opposed to cars. We have a campervan so a car garage is useless to us! I live in Italy though.
I had the same feeling going from 10mg to 7.5 mg after 5 days the stiffness in my arms continue to get worse the doctor said go back to 10 mg. I would go back and then may want to taper to 16 mg after 2 weeks
As you’re a truck driver, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time in your cab. If you have the air con on, try draping a wet flannel over the outlet to moisten the air. Might help your dry eyes a bit.
Yeah I have been a truck driver both UK and European for about 41 / 42 years now and yes I drive a Iveco truck haha, but only in UK now.
The dry stinging eye's don't bother me when I am at rest only when I am doing things like work at work or work at home, yeah I know , I am a odd one. I will however have a go with the wet flannel over the outlet see if it helps, many thanks for the tip.
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