The pain has moved?

[HamishPMR]

Now 4 yrs into PMR with prednisolone at 7mg daily, about 4 months ago I started to get pain/ache in my upper pec muscles and now suffer if I lift a heavy weight. Any ideas out there, please.

[herdysheep]

I confess lifting a heavy weight is a no no for me unless utterly necessary. Others will be in a better position to advise, but it may be you are doing too much and the underlying pmr is still active or you have aggravated muscles. Our muscles are weakened by the joys of pmr and pred and we need more effort to do simple things. One shopping bag has to be divided into 2 for me to manage now, and that is not heavy stuff - I get that delivered!!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Have you tried painkillers (oral or topical gel) or can you recall doing anything which may have caused the issue?

Maybe try an additional mg of Pred for a few days to see if it helps, although as it appears to have been worsening over the last few months you may need to follow the advice in link and treat it as a flare -

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Maybe you have pulled the muscles in some way - and they aren't healing because you are (still) lifting heavy weights? Though what do you mean by a Heavy weight? I sometimes struggle with a full kettle - though it is my low back that protests - and no shopping bags. I split things into smaller bags and use a small sack-trolley to transfer them up to the flat in a larger bag loaded one at a time. And that is with a lift.

[HamishPMR in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you PMRpro your ongoing help is much appreciated. I think you are correct that I have strained them as the "attack" was so sudden, 3-4 months ago. I had never had pain in my pecs before and I thought that by now the problem would be resolved.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HamishPMR]

Not if you keep aggravating it. Our muscles don't heal as well as they did did pre-PMR or pre-pred - doesn't take much to upset them again