New, but lots of questions!

[ScrubJayNorth]

I’m a newby here, have been on pred for about ten weeks, six at twenty, four at 17 1/2 and now a week on 15. My first question is if my neck and shoulder pain seems to be coming back at this dose, will going back up to 17.5 help? And also, I think I might have a hairline fracture in my foot, old wounds, from stubbing my toe. Will being on Pred help or hurt healing? Also, I was on 20 mg pred when I got my COVID vaccines, but only for a month. Will the vaccine still work?

Any thoughts will help!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I'm afraid there isn't a straight answer to any of your questions - I wish there were.

Going back to 17.5mg might help the shoulder and neck pain - you may not be quite ready for a drop to 15mg yet and so going back and dropping just 1mg at a time might be helpful. The other question has to be whether you have been doing more than you should recently since you dropped the dose? However, difficulty reducing the dose at this level might suggest it isn't directly PMR causing the problem - my main shoulder and neck problems are due to myofascial pain syndrome and while that is part of PMR for many people, it responds better to more targeted treatment so you need less pred. (Physio with work on the spasmed muscles is what I find best).

The broken foot? Another it depends answer - pred has never impaired my healing, some people do have problems though.

And the vaccine? No-one knows - no-one has collated the evidence and analysed it as yet, Measuring the production of antibodies is only part of the answer - and even when they are known it isn't known how level of antibodies relates to the protection afforded. Even with healthy non-immunosuppressed subjects the production of antibodies varies greatly so variation amongst patients on pred or anything else is also to be expected. There have been reports from people on the forum that they have been shown to have antibodies - and some who don't. I'm rather assuming I don't have much, if any, protection and am continuing as I have for the last year. Keeping my distance and wearing a mask when anywhere near others, even outdoors. Space, face, clean hands, in that order.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

PMRpro has answered, so won't repeat, but you might like to read this post - to get a better understanding of your illness, it's under the FAQ questions, so as a newbie it worth your while reading some/all of them as well - see featured content or Pinned Posts -healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...