Hi. Very new to this site. I was diagnosed with hip OA and has had a Lt THR in August. Iwas diagnosed with PMR sept 2022 and was tapering my prednisolne dose. But if i reduced too much the hip pain became unbearable. So i increased and the hip pain went. I realised the Pred was masking the hip pain. Had the op and all good. But unfortunately its all started in the Rt hip now which on xray was worse than the left !!. I reduced to 6mg and couldnt walk or weight bare. So upped to 7mg and gota bit easier. Have an app with Orthopaedic cons on Monday so i assume I will have to have this one done too. Also having alot of thigh stiffness which i assume is due to me exercising. But upperarm pain has also lasted well into the day when it usually goes early morning. Has znyone got any comments please ?
Pmr and Hip OA: Hi. Very new to this site. I was... - PMRGCAuk
Pmr and Hip OA
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The pain of a hip that needs replaced can make PMR pain worse - I would take what makes me comfortable for the moment providing it isn't too high.
Thank you. All veryy new to me
The most important things is quality of life and pain relief. If 8mg is enough, I'd go for it - though not before the orthopod has agreed you need it done asap!
But the bicep pain suggests the PMR needs a bit more. And that is important - you won't recover well if the PMR is flaring because you won't be able to do the rehab.
They say hip replacements go in twos!! My second hip seemed to get much worse after I had had the first one done.
It's not surpringing and totally understandable. When one part of the body, hip or knee is not working properly and also extremely painful, however much you might try to keep things normal, your whole body stance and attitude changes as you you do all you can to take the weight, stress and pain off that area. Whether that's in walking, sleeping, standing etc. That, plus the different angles of pressure from lop sided walking etc, puts a huge amount of extra stress and strain on the opposite joint area. Then everything changes again and the joints you were relying on say, "we've had enough of that, done our bit so get me updated please". I guess the sooner affected joints can be replaced then the need to replace the other joint may lesson. If its not been done it might make an interesting study.
Mine didn’t… but right hip quickly [6 months] followed left knee... but then I never have followed the trend🤦🏻♀️
Fortunately - opposites seem to be okay…. Five years on 🤞
In fact my mother, father and grandmother only had one hip replacement each. It is just the saying goes that hip replacements go in twos! As Bcol says it does make sense!
Yes it does … and the issues with left knee and issues walking certainly had an effect on opposite hip.,, 😊
My story is the same as yours. Had left hip replaced in April right to be done in February. I did not realise how pred was masking the oa. I also suspect making it worse. I also have upper arm pain and not sure if its PMR or OA in both shoulders. As for thigh pain which was dreadful it stopped in 5 days when I stopped eating all gluten. Also most of stiffness went in hips.
Why do you think the pred was making it worse? I felt fab 6 weeks after my hip replacement. Reduced my pred dose hardly any pain releief. Physio happy. After a weekend away where i walked 16000 steps with breaks one day and a new physio with resistance band exercises which i religiously did. I have suffered lots of thigh stiffness which on Friday the physio was pleased with showing the muscles were being worked !! But were they or is it my PMR ?. Plus a swollen knee on other leg and pain on weight bare on unoperated leg too. I feel so down. But as i said in my original post. My unoperated leg was showi g up worse on xray, but never had any problems till a week ago when i reduced my pred to 6.mg. exactly the same senario with my operated leg. I'm back to 8mg as of this morning. So see what happens. 😊
See my reply to Appledore6, and would say that 6mg could be the dose that is too low to mask your OA pain, if that is what the issue is… and if so then you might find that ordinary painkillers may help. However, the rise in Pred may give you the answer - if it helps it’s probably PMR, if not it may be OA.
I did not realise how pred was masking the oa. I also suspect making it worse.
Higher doses of Pred can certainly mask the pain of OA… and all the time it’s doing that you cannot be sure how much the OA is deteriorating- which you would if you weren’t on the Pred. Not sure you can know the Pred is actually making the OA worse as such.
Prednisolone depletes Vit D and calcium amongst others. I have twice paid for private blood tests and both times been advised to supplement.
Yes i agree. Before i had my hip replacement i used to say if i had'nt got PMR and on steroids i would have had my THR sooner. But obviously the medics want you to keep reducing but I could'nt. The OA was the problem but i can't see how the pred was making it worse. In my case it definately made my life snd pain better. Just can't understand the bilateral thigh stffness now. No pain just stiffness on walking !!