Seized up deltoids

[yorkieme]

Good morning everyone,I hope you are all in the best possible health and ready for a sunny day.

I am still waiting for my rheumy to come forward with her conclusion regarding my diagnosis,and her action plan. I know she wants to take me off steroids and put me on MXT believing steroids have damaged me.(she hasn't said how,)

I am now on 15mg pred' having done two weeks on 20mg/15mg alternate days. The problem is that both deltoid muscles in my arms have become rock solid,the pain is bearable with codeine but due to my inexperience I don't know if this is because too low pred' dose or is it just from say gardening digging up turf ? four days ago.

How do we differentiate when pain comes back in the typical PMR areas ? ( in December last year I presented with pain across the back of my neck,shoulders,arms,buttocks,thighs,) In six months I have only had repeated pain in my shoulders/arms/wrists,would it be normal to expect all areas to be affected ? Finally is it possible I have been reduced too quickly ?

Thanks to anyone who can respond.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I honestly do suspect that this may be related to that turf!!! Whatever it is you have, if it is PMR then the pred cured nothing, just relieved the symptoms. The actual disorder is still there, active and making your muscles intolerant of acute exercise. Pred also does tend to make muscles delicate too and it really is a good idea to avoid heavy activity. And digging turf is definitely that!

[yorkieme in reply to PMRpro]

I'm not surprised at your response to be honest,even limiting my turf activity to half an hour it looks like for now it is simply too much. I am simply distraught because I know full well what you and many others on here think about the implications for PMR with regard to stress and excessive excercise but I did consider what I did to be minimal,and did so to try and help along with my diet to lose some weight ................ I genuinely believe my weight is hampering my recovery.

I think maybe I need to sit back and wait,find out what my issue is and what the plans are regarding medication. Once again many thanks,hope that you and your family are well and enjoying life in Italy.

[piglette]

If you have PMR and are on 15mg I would question stopping the pred altogether and just taking methotrexate.

[yorkieme in reply to piglette]

Thanks for the reply. Being new to this horrendous disease and pretty clear of any medication up to the age of 67 years,and pretty fit and active too,the side effects of Pred' really have shocked me.I seem to have picked up a few,insomnia,moon face,weight gain,short of breath,oral thrush,sweats,edema,cramp etc as probably only I could.lol. This of course leads on to more medication which has always been a pet hate.

So,moving from Pred' to methotrexate and more possible side effects frightens the life out of me.

You will no doubt have a view on this due to your experience but what I would like is to ask my G.P./rheumy' to bring me off pred' completely even at the risk of having to cope with the subsequent pain if it flares/if it's PMR etc,and then carry out a more text book assessment.My initial period of being diagnosed happened when I had pneumonia quite bad,just got over the noro virus in early December and already had Non Hodgkins lymphatic cancer.(non treatment,grade 2) Even my rheumy' admits it's a complicated case because I have had two three day visits to the Covirad unit to boot where some consultants/doctors believe I had the Corona virus and beat it but with no test to prove either way. It drives me nuts at the moment to be honest,I have three different bodies of opinion.

I would welcome your views on Methotrexate compared to Pred' though.

[piglette in reply to yorkieme]

Methotrexate is not an alternative to pred, people sometimes take the two together as the MTX helps to taper the pred, although that does not work for everyone. I had all those side effects too, plus others, it does improve as you reduce though. They may want you to take MTX for something else of course, but if you have PMR you need the pred or you will be in a lot of pain.

[yorkieme in reply to piglette]

Thank you,as I said to PMRpro it looks like I must be patient and await the outcome of the tests. Have a good week end.

[piglette in reply to yorkieme]

Good luck