Stiff and painful neck, a flare?

[Mstiles]

I’ve had a stiff and painful neck for the last 3,4 days. Turning my head to the left or right causes pain, also lying down.

It feels like it’s my neck muscles but not sure what’s going on or if it’s a flare. Also a big increase in tinnitus and very fatigued. With other flares I’ve had pain more in the shoulders, and occipital head pain when diagnosed originally with GCA.

I also have pain in both shoulders which isn’t new. Orthopedist is looking into that.

I’m on 9 mg prednisone.

I’ve been trying to sort out causes for pain before I try increasing prednisone, but it’s a slow process what with waiting for appointments and tests to rule things out.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

[Merryfield]

I hope it’s not a flare. I am having similar symptoms as you as I reduce steroids.

[HeronNS]

I blamed similar symptoms (not tinnitus however) on osteoarthritis, which I do have. But it did in the end turn out to be a major PMR flare. I was at the time at about 3 mg pred. An increase in pred to 10, briefly, and then for a while around 8, was quite as miraculous as initial pred way back in the beginnning. Earlier regular blood tests showed inflammation marker greatly increased but I resisted increasing pred. That was nearly 2 years ago and, touch wood, I'm much better now and have been for about a year, although still on small dose of pred.

Telling you this because I resisted increasing pred in the beginning, and life would have been easier had I given myself a bit of a pred test earlier. But experience, they say, is what you have when you don't need it any more.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Stiffness in the sternocleidomastoid muscles can extend into the shoulder muscles too. It is a not uncommon place for a PMR flare to start but can also happen after being in a draught - too enthusiastic aircon maybe? - or changing a pillow or even a different mattress.

But your complaint of tinnitus and a history of GCA does make me concerned about the GCA flaring. I would at least try our usual recipe for dealing with a flare: add 5mg to the dose you are at for up to a week to 10 days. If it helps, the chances are it is a flare, If it has no effect at all, you can drop back to the dose you are at at present without a long taper,

[Mstiles in reply to PMRpro]

Yes I think I will try upping the dose for a week or so. I wanted to get blood tests before trying that and also see the orthopedist again for shoulder and hip pain and problems to rule things out, but I don’t remember ever having such severe pain that I could barely turn my head. Orthopedist diagnosed torn shoulder tendon for shoulder pain and ordered MRI of hip for gait problems, (after 4 months, state of health care today)

Tomorrow I finally get blood tests for sed rate and CRP after waiting weeks.

I see my Opthomologist tomorrow for a long-scheduled checkup. Maybe she will see something but there seems to be no coordination between opthomology and rheumatology.

Also dealing with a very stressful family crisis so no sense putting off trying more prednisone any more.

Thank you PMR pro.

[Jakey2020]

I had same last week, stopped me being nosey 😀 put it down to a flare!!!

[Sophiestree]

Spooky. This is exactly what happened to me before other symptoms presented and so upped the steroids for a flare. Now have weird tingling sensation in my face.

[Sharitone in reply to Sophiestree]

That's what I had with GCA! The rheumy said he didn't know what it was, but I noticed he put it on the application for GCA. I came off pred in March but then had to go back on it again in August, by which time the tingling had started up again. It makes me feel the central band of my face, between eyebrows and end of nose, must be burning red, but there is never anything to see in the mirror. If you find out what it is, please let us know!