Flare or pulled muscle?

[Stargiver]

I have been going along on 10mg pred for a while hoping to reduce but haven’t yet, then 4 days ago while getting out of a chair a bit awkwardly I felt extremely stiff it my back a right buttock. I have had a painful few days and as the day progressed it would go off a bit, but every morning back to square 1. Seems very reminiscent of early PMR days as it was always in my hip girdle, never the typical shoulders. It’s Friday so no chance of a swift blood test and don’t really want to up pred a notch. What to do?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Have you tried ordinary painkillers and heat treatment? If they help, then it’s probably not PMR.

Could be Piriformis Syndrome, plenty of advice online… this is a fairly recent post, and there are plenty of related ones - healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

If painkillers don’t help, then most likely a flare….so increase required, but do consider other options.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It sounds much more like a pulled muscle judging by the history you give and DL has already suggested what I was going to say too: piriformis syndrome. I developed something similar after toppling slightly as I got into the driver's seat of the car. More pred didn't really help that - it did help the flare that developed due to something else. Heat and painkillers did help as did piriformis stretches.

[Stargiver in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks both for your replies. Helpful 😊