holiday hell

[eyeBRing]

Hi I am having a few days away with my son and his wife. woke in middle of night with concrete legs and pain in wrist and back. I am on 7mg pred ,put it up to 10mg but its not helping.

[SnazzyD]

oh what a shame. What have you done in the last couple of days including extra walking, carrying, sitting etc. Could the ‘wrong’ mattress be causing issues?

[123-go]

My first thoughts were that you may have overdone things during the day before, eg more walking, not having a rest when you needed it or possibly your bed being uncomfortable / sleeping in an awkward position.

When did you take the 10mg dose?

[123-go in reply to 123-go]

I see that Snazzy has already replied in a similar way 🙂.

[eyeBRing in reply to 123-go]

started it on Thursday (three days ago} was aching and legs were hurting on the Wednesday

[eyeBRing in reply to eyeBRing]

the pain has not eased at all and wondered if I had gone up high enough on my pred?

[SnazzyD in reply to eyeBRing]

If you have strained yourself, over done it generally or slept on a bad mattress etc, in my experience, upping Pred won’t help. It’s more along the lines of injury rather than autoimmune attack. Hence my initial questions.

[123-go in reply to eyeBRing]

I hesitate to recommend increasing your prednisolone further. Have you tried paracetamol, eyeBRing?

[eyeBRing]

thanks I did do some heavy lifting about 10 days ago and maybe it will settle on its own.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to eyeBRing]

The usual "flare" recommendation is add 5mg, which would be 12mg. And even 1mg can make a big difference. But the heavy lifting 12 days ago may well have caught up. Bad timing!

[SheffieldJane]

Stress!! Have you flown? I would be inclined to treat it as a flare unless symptoms begin to emerge that suggest it’s something else. Any chance of access to a doctor?

I love my family but I find them stressful - if this is the case with you - it will add to your misery.

[HeronNS]

Non-steroid painkiller test seems like a plan. Otherwise, wait till you've been home again for a handful of days before worrying too much. Others have suggested there may be something aggravating about your sleeping position in an unaccustomed bed.

Yesterday I could hardly walk and couldn't figure out why. Did loosen up a bit as I meandered along, and better today. Have also remembered what I'd done - a couple of days earlier I'd done a particular leg-strengthening exercise I'd let lapse for some time. Just did the whole lot, no reintroducing over several days. There you go! Our muscles really don't like us to overdo stuff, and will be sure to make us pay, even if it takes a few days and some intervening unintended (and maybe not even noticed) additional physical stress.

Is there anything you can do to help relax your muscles? A long soak in warm water, maybe with some Epsom salts? Massage? Maybe a daily dose of magnesium?

[Missy3134]

I am certainly no expert but I have found that I have a flare every time I go on vacation. I have noticed that when I eat out I have issues due to the amount of salt in food. I also have an issue with fried foods. Last summer in Maine I had cried clams which caused a huge flare. Flying is stressful too. I love to travel but it is always problematic when I do so. In May of this year when I flew to Europe from the US, I increased my prednisone from 3mg to 5mg before I left home and decreased back to 3 mg when I returned home 2 weeks later. I felt pretty good on vacation. Every time I have a flare at home I assess what I ate the previous day. High sodium is usually the cause. I do a lot of reading about PMR and diet plays a role in how we feel. I am far from an expert but I am doing the best I can with diet and exercise. I have had PMR for just over 2 years and recently went down to 2 mg which is not working so I will increase back to 3mg for a few days. I have been in a lot of pain especially at night.

I hope you feel better when you get home and back into your normal routine.