Flare up's and how long

[Yogurt55]

Hi all just a quick question I have had PMR for 11 month now and have been able to slowly taper down my Pred. I think I am experiencing a flare up, as my upper are have become very painful in certain positions (like a stabbing sensation) I had this on my right arm at the onset but both have become painful. How long in your experience do flare up's last. This has been with me for about 2 week and today it has started to feel better

Many Thanks

[PMRpro Ambassador]

What have you tapered to? Had you just done a reduction when this started? Often such pains may be steroid withdrawal which starts quite quickly after changing the dose and then takes some days/up to a couple of weeks to fade. But without a bit more info it is hard to say.

[Yogurt55 in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you for the reply,

l had dropped from 7 to 6 mg when the pain started

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Yogurt55]

That is a big drop at this stage - no reduction step should really be more than 10% of the current dose. If the pain has gone after a couple of weeks I'd suspect it was steroid withdrawal but try to do smaller steps now - or use one of the slowed taper plans like this:

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

Other versions exist.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

PMRPRO has answered your question - but please can you put a bit more info on your profile - it makes it easier for user to answer your questions.

Age at diagnosis, starting dose, issues pre diagnosis, country (medicines and terms vary) gender (unless it’s obvious from name - yours isn’t).