A follow up from my previous post

[Lacelady]

I have found that increasing my pred dose to 15mg doesn’t seem to be making a lot of difference so I have been thinking about the headache and have come to a sort of conclusion. I would appreciate your opinion on this please

A long story I am afraid. About 10 years ago I developed a pain in my neck which gave me a headache like it have now. The doctor sent me for an X-ray and said I had the start of arthritis but assured me it would possibly go away in time, which it did and I have had no trouble since . Until now !

It is making me think that it has returned. As far as I can remember it felt just like the headache I have now. Obviously when it started my first reaction was that it was GCA but maybe not .

I have been reading the posts by people who seem to get RA when on pred and it might fit.

I have not been able to get an appointment with a Doctor yet to discuss it with them so would appreciate your thoughts on this

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I think it is pretty likely that you have shoulder and neck muscle problems that are causing the headache. I find it pretty unlikely that if you did have arthritis 10 years ago that it has gone away!!! That really isn't the nature of the beast!!

I need physio/therapeutic massage every so often to soften up tight shoulder and neck muscles which can cause all sorts of havoc!

[Lacelady in reply to PMRpro]

Like you I did find it odd that he said it would go away but it did so maybe he was wrong with his diagnosis. It isn’t too bad today so maybe it is easing off . Maybe I aggravated my neck muscles some how. All that digging wouldn’t have helped, I made sure I didn’t do any this weekend.

Thank you for answering

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Lacelady]

I would think digging would do it!!!! Would for me!

[SnazzyD in reply to Lacelady]

Once my muscles got weak, digging was a complete no no. It invariably knackered my shoulders and most importantly my neck and it took a few weeks to get rid of or expensive trips to a Bowen therapist (my favourite therapy since diagnosis) or an osteopath.

[Lacelady in reply to SnazzyD]

I didn’t have any trouble with the digging, no muscle pain afterwards but maybe this built up in my neck. You don’t always know what damage you are doing. When I started with PMR it was when we had moved house and had been landscaping the garden so possibly stress related. Who knows.

Thank you.

[SnazzyD in reply to Lacelady]

I didnt have PMR, but GCA only. However, Pred caused the muscle problems and delayed onset damage. So, I would smugly think I’d got away with it but 2/3 days later, bang.

[Lacelady in reply to SnazzyD]

I am going to learn from my complacency and let everyone else do the digging. ..

[Lacelady]

Thank you for that explanation it is very thorough and makes sense to me. I didn’t take anything for it back then just ibuprofen which I lived on for weeks. I just hope it improves this time too especially as I am on pred now.

Like you said I will have to go back to my Doctor but getting an appointment isn’t easy.

Thank you