PMR possible relapse

[Kingswaywhite]

Hi there diagnosed with PMR 4/21 and been relatively ok thus far. I have tapered gradually down to 7.5 mg a day and have had no issues at all. Then last week I was out running as I normally do. ( Run 4/5 times a week and have done this throughout my PMR journey) and felt a familiar ache in my calf which has got progressively worse over the last 7 days with no running, I can barely walk down my stairs in the morning which is how I felt last time.

QQ does anybody else have experience with a pain in lower legs I have pain in just my right leg at the moment and nowhere else, does it sound like I am having a relapse? Rest of my body seems ok at the moment but I am getting a strong sense of deja vu.

I am thinking of just taking a larger dose of Pred and see how it responds after 24 hours any suggestions welcome.

Steve

[piglette]

The fact it is just one leg and is quite bad does sound that it may not be PMR. If the pred works that will show it possibly is.

[Kingswaywhite in reply to piglette]

Thanks piglette had thought of doing this as I had significant relief within 24 hours of taking Pred when diagnosed. Will have my bloods done Thursday and may take a preemptive boost after my blood tests whilst waiting for the results if still having symptoms.

[piglette in reply to Kingswaywhite]

Sounds like a good move!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Sounds more like a pulled muscle or an achilles tendon problem - I have achilles problems in one leg and peroneal tendon problems in the other! Stairs are a nightmare! And the leg stiffness is very like PMR stiffness - after all, part of the underlying pathology of PMR is inflammation at the attachments of tendons and ligaments around joints.

Such injuries are much more likely after longterm pred and seem to take ages to resolve too. I think it would be worth getting a medical opinion - because you don't want a tendonitis to progress to a rupture because that REALLY is a pain to get healed.

[Kingswaywhite in reply to PMRpro]

Yes I thought it was Achilles pain too initially. However the pain seems to move up and down my calf like a phantom. I have used RiCE for the last 5 days and it has felt worse by the day. Also beginning to get a little sympathetic resonance in my lower left leg which may be psychological 😆

Yes the pain in the morning is awful walking down the stairs but it does tend to ease a little as the day goes on.

I have a hospital appt for another issue this week will ask them to do some bloods for ESR and CRP and see what come back.

Thanks for your help and advice this forum is fab 😁👍

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Kingswaywhite]

The markers can lag behind - but everything does have to start somewhere ...

[marionofnorwich]

I have had the same issue though not with running but a half hour session of very slow table tennis. The next day I could feel the stress in my rght leg calf muscle and across my clavicle ie the muscles that had (probably) been over exercised. I had just dropped from 5mg to 4mg, probably too steep a taper I now know. The calf strain resulted in a bad knee problem which has taken months to recover from. I don't think that the damage was directly PMR but caused initially but overtight muscles prone to stiffness causing secondary damage which was hard to heal. It also affected my left hip and thigh muscles as I was compensating for my right knee weakness and pain. At one point I couldn't walk. I also have benefitted from my osteopath who is also good with soft tissue and has helped to loosen the muscles and ligaments. My advice is to make sure you rest it now, give it more healing time than you normally would and make sure you stretch well both before and after exercise. I have noticed that PMR seems to affect people who are normally very active and 'get on with it'. Without becoming a negative person, I have found that I need to modify that a bit with PMR. I hope that helps, just my personal experience

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to marionofnorwich]

Ditto ditto ditto!!!!!! It's a "simple" problem that skews everything else and wreaks havoc. I wish I had your osteopath to hand!

[marionofnorwich]

I should say that I also got Covid a few days after this which seemed to really ruffle things up so I did increase my Pred, eventually back to 10mg (I tapered up for a while till I found a level where I started to feel better) and now tapering down again currently about to drop to 8mg from a few weeks on 9mg but I don't think I would have done that without the obvious flare caused by Covid - in other words, I could eventually distinguish between physical damage and PMR stiffness. For a while it was very mixed together.

[PMR2011]

Do you have any swelling, even a little? I had similar a few years ago. Calf ache after hiking that wouldn’t go away. A little swelling in foot worse at the end of the day.GP wasn’t too impressed but I knew there was something wrong. Ultrasound showed a large Deep Vein Thrombosis! Would have it investigated if doesn’t resolve soon. Good luck!

[Stravaman]

Developed tendonitis in calf and foot. After RICE I started to use sports compression tubes on calf and compression socks on feet. Use them when walking and have limited walks to every other day max. Seems to be doing the business now for well over 6 months.) (5 years on Pred, this is second presentation, 4mgs ATM, DSNS, now under Rod Hughes who says tendinitis can come with the territory, sadly)