Flare?

[Booboos171]

I'm sorry, it's me again, i do promise I'm not a hypochondriac!! I am having, what i strongly believe is my first flare. The last 2 days i have had pain in my hamstrings, which was the first sign of PMR last April, although i didn't have a clue what it was at that point. Today, the pain is creeping back, now also up my back and in my groin. I am currently tapering down from 9.5mg to 9mg, but only started last Monday on 9mg and have been back to 9.5mg every day since. My question is, what do I do? I've looked through previous posts and think i should up my pred dose but I'm unsure by how much and for how many days? Not sure what caused this but i have had a stressful week, very anxious anout my elderly mum being at risk, like many of us I'm sure. Any advice would be very welcomed.

Thank you!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Think you’ve probably answered yourself - stress!

Might be worth going up to 10mg for 5 -10 days then continue your reducing 0.5mg a time.

Good luck.

[Booboos171 in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you, i think so too, before this I've felt good painwise so it's come as a bit of a surprise. I'll go up to 10mg tomorrow, can i just check please, would i then go back to 9.5mg and if so, for how long, or start back to tapering to 9mg? X x x

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Booboos171]

Hi,

Stay at 9.5mg for at least 2 weeks, just to make sure everything okay.

Guess you’re reducing approx monthly.

[Booboos171 in reply to DorsetLady]

Will do, that's so helpful, thank you. I am currently doing the 7 week slower taper, went from 10mg to 9.5mg no problem so was looking forward to starting going down to 9mg, however, i do know it's not a race so will do as you suggest. Thank you!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Booboos171]

Good, stick with that then!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

How long is it since you tapered down from 10 to 9.5mg? Often it takes a few weeks for the inflammation to build up enough to be felt. And stress really doesn't help - have you been seeing her more, walking more?

[Booboos171 in reply to PMRpro]

Hi and thank you for replying, i tapered from 10mg to 9.5mg over the 7 weeks so tomorrow would have been 9 weeks since on 10mg. My mum lives with me, I'm her full time carer as she has slight dementia (still knows all the family though, thank God, it's just hardly any short term memory), she also has an autoimmune disease herself (sjrodens) and Primary Bilary Cirrhosis, she's 83 so in the high risk category, and i work full time , not feeling sorry for myself at all, please don't think that, I'm incredibly lucky to be able to look after her and consider it a privilege, she's been such an amazing mum. But i have been so anxious over it all and terrified I'll transfer germs to her! My mind has been on overdrive as she doesn't really understand why I'm wearing gloves and standing a metre away, apart from when i shower her, obviously i can't then! X x x