Hi
I’ve reduced from 12 to 11 over the last couple of weeks aa well as starting ‘Our Path’ healthy eating programme (low carb) and I’ve been feeling amazing - the first time I’ve really felt myself in over a year! But (you knew it was coming) the last two days my PMR symptoms have slammed back in- not the worst they’ve been but not good. Yes, I know I overdid it ....Should I wait a few restful days or go back to 12?
Thank you lovely people for reading this 😊
What did you do to over do it?
Walked too far without stopping (increased steps from 3000 average to 5000 last week) not resting, bit too much of the Duracell bunny - but maybe not as batteries gone flat!
Hmm, in the light of that, unless you’re certain it’s PMR, I’d just wait a couple more days because it I could be muscle strain which will normally reach a peak at 48 hours. I wouldn’t expect you to feel better in 48 hours but after that you should expect to feel a little improvement which should keep going.
It's also a good idea to change only one thing at a time. Changing too many variables at once makes it hard to determine what's working and what's not.
As you can point to a couple of other factors besides the taper I'd suggest you wait. Instead of a long walk, take two short ones (exercise good, don't cut back, not at this level, I'd give other advice if you'd just started a strenuous gym programme). Make sure with the diet change that you still are properly hydrated, and if you gave up something like caffeine which you are used to, reintroduce it, maybe in a smaller quantity (e.g. tea or green tea instead of coffee).
Thanks - I am drinking much more water as part of the plan as well as GP telling me I should have water with me all the time. This is a separate question - should I start another thread - but I’m being referred to a neurologist for numb patches rhs body, tingling numb feet especially at night, constant thirst, clumsiness... anyone come across these type of symptoms with PMR or Pred? Blood test next week to rule out anything else.
I haven’t experienced numbness but muscle cramps and what I think are muscle twitches in my legs. I have dry mouth so I drink water constantly. I agree that spacing exercise in small increments is a good idea. It is crazy that you will feel the effects of too much exercise days after. I addressed 20 Christmas cards and was sore for two days after! Soaks in Epsom salts helps too.
Increasing the pred won't help DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) due to overdoing it.
Increasing exercise is good - but not all at once when you have PMR. You have to "train" building up slowly - splitting the exercise as Heron suggests helps a lot but the best way to increase is to add a few minutes each day until you feel a bit of soreness the next day. Stay there for a few weeks to "train" and then add a few minutes again until you either feel you did too much the day before or get to the amount you want.
DOMS may be a part was not that intense on muscles and shoulders/ arms aching which have not been used. It’s been more about increasing / doing more quicker of normal pottering, not resting, thinking I was back to normal so I could get away with more...
There may be another factor, my throat’s getting very sore. I suspect another low grade viral infection- bum!
Completely love your common sense! 😀
Oh, and are you using a slow taper method or did you drop a mg overnight? Even above 10 mg some people find the slow taper helpful, and it still gets you down by 1 mg within a month.
It was a not so slow taper, alternated over a couple of weeks.
Have you found alternating useful for earlier tapers? I wasn't able to use that method, but when I tried it was at a much lower dose so the percentage change each day was very much higher. The dead slow nearly stop method turned out to be best for me, and DorsetLady's simple taper is also found helpful by many. They are more gradual ways of doing what the alternating ultimately also achieves.
Splitting dose of prednisolone
Low dose prednisolone
Reducing prednisolone dose
Low Prednisolone dose and eyesight 
Getting the prednisolone dose right
