Blood results & lagging

[maxismall]

Morning All. My fall & 11 days in hospital back in March is causing me to query how long it takes for a trauma to show up in blood results.

No increase in PMR pain at the time. Two months ago a slow increase in pain in my quads. On a slow taper from 4.5mg to 4mg. ESR 42 (up from 11 in January)& CRP 13 ( up from 1).

Is there anyway of knowing if these recent results are because I am at too low a dose for degree of activity /disease or is there a time lag between a trauma & it showing up in blood tests? Thanks as ever.

[123-go]

It is known that trauma affects disease activity and it's likely that your fall will have exacerbated that. As a result it may be advisable to up your Pred dose perhaps by up to 5mg for a week or two and then continue with a slow taper. Others more knowledgable will advise. Blood test results often do lag behind symptoms. Time will tell. The waiting game is frustrating!

[maxismall in reply to 123-go]

The fall was 6 months ago & did not result in an increase in PMR pain. Something of a miracle! It would seem I am just at too low a dose for diaease activity. Going up to 6mg for a spell pending more blood tests in 3 weeks time. Thank you for your response.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Any increase in blood results due to trauma would be immediate - due to damage to muscles/bruising - and it would disappear again within a relatively short time.

If you have been tapering since then it sounds much more as if you have gone below the amount of pred you need to manage the ongoing PMR inflammation. That ESR is considerably raised - even the 32 in January is high by most experts standards. I'm not even convinced it is the result of this taper if symptoms started 2 months ago it sounds as if the dose in July was already too low.

[maxismall in reply to PMRpro]

Many thanks. I am going back up to 6mg for a while which is just above the dose where I last felt no pain in my quads. More blood tests booked in 3 weeks time.

The onset of the pain has been slowly slowly building & nothing like as bad as pre-diagnosis. What my legs felt like has become my 'normal' & because it didn't stop me walking 5 miles a day I persevered with tapering. Lesson learnt - if my quads start up again I will take action! Thanks for reassuring me the fall is in the past & I simply have to accept my body is not yet ready for 4mg.

[piglette]

Your body is often a lot better at telling you if there is a problem with the PMR rather than blood test results. If you feel OK no reason not to reduce, if you feel rough DON’T reduce.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

How succinctly put!!!!!!

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

and not an ounce of cynicism either for a change.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

[maxismall in reply to piglette]

Therein lies the crunch! I carried on pushing through the pain & afternoon fatigue because it was not at a level that stopped me doing my morning walks etc. Thanks.