RELAPSING?

[guitarzan]

Down to 8 mgs on preds and shoulders aching deep in the muscle for a few days. The right side is considerably more the the left. Wondering if it's a relapse or just something else since the pain is unbalanced. Might try going up a half mg and see what happens. Any ideas?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi,

Have you done any activity that might have caused it? Gardening? Moving furniture? With maybe using right side more than left, especially if you are right handed. Sometimes even the simplest things can bring on extra pain.

If you can associate with other activity you might find that paracetamol sorts it out - or just a few days of TLC!

If no obvious reason then maybe an extra mg is required.

But don’t let it rumble on too long before getting to grips with it.

PS. Just read your first post, so it could well be relapse- so might be worth having a few days at 10mg, and then dropping back down to 8mg.

[guitarzan in reply to DorsetLady]

I do physical work but the pain is typical of the pain with PMR except for not being parallel like it usually is with a relapse. Thinking i my give it a few days.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to guitarzan]

Often one side starts before the other - leave it and it may catch up!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to guitarzan]

Don’t leave it too long, if it is the beginning of a flare the longer you let it go on, the more Pred you end up taking.

Nip it in the bud - quick!

[guitarzan in reply to DorsetLady]

Thanks for the advice...we'll take

[SnazzyD]

Done anything repetitive or unusual? However seemingly trivial. Does it hurt to move the shoulder or is it the same all the time?

[guitarzan in reply to SnazzyD]

Pain is with movement, very deep muscle pain. Like a punch in the shoulder. Hips are fine but my left hand is stiff. The last relapse took a toll on my hands. Upped the preds and all went away. Glad I came across this site, it is great to compare notes.

[Hidden]

Hi how many days since the drop?

[guitarzan in reply to Hidden]

It's been about a week since going from 9 to 8...usually the Doc has me going down in .5 mg steps but this time at 1mg. I had a relapse over 4 months ago and went back from 2.5 to 10 and told to stay on 10 for 3 months. Last appointment told to drop to 9 and then 8 a month later. Seems like 8 had more fatigue associated with the taper. I'm not taking any more whole mg steps and plan on sticking to the half steps.

[Hidden in reply to guitarzan]

Hi, sounds like a sensible idea. I have to do 0.5mg drops even on slow tapers. I know now not to even drop if I have symptoms at all. 🌻

[SnazzyD in reply to guitarzan]

Hmm, sounds like too big a jump to me after only 4 weeks. With symptoms coming in a week later as opposed to a few days (withdrawal) it might be worth treating this as a flare. Just for comparison from 10-5mg I did 0.5mg every 6-8 weeks with the odd 12 weeker. I didn’t have PMR, just a GCA, but my body became much more sensitive to drops at this end.

[guitarzan in reply to SnazzyD]

.5 has been the regamental decrease since all this mess started. Don't know why the Dr. had me drop a whole mg. Won't do it again.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I agree with Snazzy - 1mg is the absoluet tops below 10mg - but that still doesn't mean it will work!