ESR gone high again?

[Silver-Babe]

I've had PMR since January 2021 and have been taking a slow and steady taper every six weeks. From 15mg, I'm now down to 3mg, though this week I'm tapering between 3 and 3.5mg to take it slowly. Apart from diabetes (thank you Pred!) I am fine and am fit and well with no problems at all. I have also lost a stone in weight, thanks to diabetic dietician's advice of being on only 800 calories a day. But to my surprise and dismay, my ESR has gone up to 18 this month! Why, oh why?

[piglette]

My CRP and ESR often get very raised. In fact my ESR has never been below 32 and is currently 50 plus. I have given up worrying too much if I feel OK. Could you have a cold or bug causing it?

[Silver-Babe in reply to piglette]

That's encouraging Piglette because no cold and I feel fine. Extraordinary, so I'll keep bashing on and hope for the best!

[piglette in reply to Silver-Babe]

I decided I am better off not getting my inflammation markers checked as it just worries me that they are pretty high all the time and the doctors seem not to care less.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Is anything else going on? A cold? Anything like that will raise the ESR - and a lot of other things too as it is very non-specific.

But the thing you need to worry about is whether maybe this dose is marginally too low and the inflammation is building up again. You should have it done again in the next week or so to see if it is still going up - and if it is, you need to stop reducing and maybe go back to 4mg for a while before trying again.

[Silver-Babe in reply to PMRpro]

OK PMR Pro. It';s too early to have another blood test yet as I can't even get my doctor to ring me although he has asked me to! But I'll take it easy and contine to do alternative days of 3.5mg and 3mg. thanks for the advice!