Pmr inflammation

[teacup67]

Hi I'm Christine I have had pmr for 2 and half years now and my inflammation has gone up. Would anyone here know what high figures are. Thankyou

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Hi and welcome.

It depends on the individual patient really. One in 5 don't have blood markers that go outside the normal range which is up to 20 for ESR. There is also no real link between the level of the numbers and the symptoms. It is always a good idea to ask for the actual numbers and keep a record to look back at. But symptoms ALWAYS trump numbers.

[piglette]

What were your inflammation marker results? I don’t think mine have ever been normal. The highest was 415 for CRP after my hip op. My GP reckoned I should be in the Guinness Book of Records.

[Hidden]

What are your results ?

[HeronNS]

It is very individual. But please pay attention to whatever the numbers are and how they are trending. The increase may be a warning.

You can skip this paragraph if you want. Here is a cautionary tale, a little long but by way of telling you to be careful: My CRP only once in all these years of PMR went below 10 (where I live that is the mark to aim for, elsewhere I think it's measured differently and an even lower number, like virtually nothing, is looked for). However earlier this year, after I had injured both of my knees separately in different incidents, my CRP showed as having increased, I think in the low 30s. I had no PMR symptoms, at least nothing noticeable. Next test three months later the number was up a bit more, into the 50s. My doctor had suggested I go up from 2 to 3 mg. As I had no symptoms I hadn't, but second time I decided to follow advice. Next test (these three tests were over a period of approximately six months) my CRP was as high as it has ever been, even prior to PMR diagnosis over five years ago. It is 80 something. Then one day I realized the rather limited pain of my now chronic knee condition and other OA related issues had spread throughout my body and my neck was really stiff and I began to worry about GCA. Took myself in hand, let's pretend, I said, that this is a PMR flare. I was remembering those days pre-diagnosis back in 2015 when I used to go to bed with a scarf around my neck to keep it warm in case that eased the pain, and realized that all my recent pain had spread everywhere. I took 10 mg pred yesterday. Feeling a bit better. I just want to corral the pain back into the injury site and other proven OA sites, and then will quickly reduce, probably and hopefully to 3 for the time being. I had no idea that the CRP numbers were telling me something I needed to know, and as my doctor agrees one treats symptoms not numbers I didn't do anything, and hardly even noticed what was happening until it was too late.

If you still feel fine, just play a waiting game. If any of your symptoms start to show, probably a good idea to treat them early on,

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HeronNS]

You DO treat the symptoms not the numbers - but the primary reason for doing regular bloods is to catch a trend. If they are trending higher - SOMETHING is going on.

[HeronNS in reply to PMRpro]

So I learned. And new doc is determined to find out what. Just as well I suppose. But I don't see getting down to 1.5 mg as he asked....