Flare up

[paddyholt]

can a flare up just affect one arm? If so, how much should I increase my Pred to? I've just reduced to 7mg from 15 last June.

[SnazzyD]

Might do but arm pain can be lots of other things. Can you say a bit more about it? Where it is, what makes it worse and better, how bad, type of pain, do normal painkillers help, did it come on quickly, has it come after a particular activity? That kind of thing.

The main thing is to add information into your bio about your journey and steroid dosing, presuming you have PMR. Advice given needs some context. Also, what country are you in?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

As SnazzyD has said without any context it's a bit difficult to give you relevant answer... much as we would like to..

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Less likely than it having another cause but without knowing a lot more, impossible to say.

[paddyholt]

Hi... the pain is radiating around my upper arm and spreading into my neck. It's the same pain I had when I first got PMR before I convinced my doctor that's what I had!! It hurts like hell when trying to get out of bed, moving my arm away from my body, trying to put my arm behind my back.. a really deep pain, if that makes sense. I'm pretty sure it is a flare up because tramadol, pain patch etc., aren't touching it. I'm in UK. I thought everyone was 😀. I just wasn't sure if you could have a flare up which only affected part of the original area.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to paddyholt]

Well most things start somewhere and can spread but it sounds as if you have bursitis in the shoulder - which might be due to the PMR but it is a bit more and possibly oral pred isn't the best approach to managing the pain. Oral pred doesn't get into the bursae and tendons as well as it does into the muscle - because the blood supply isn't as good. Often a steroid injection is better as it is targeted at where the problem is and locally is a higher dose.

The charity is in the UK, yes, but the forum has members from all over the world, more from the UK probably but also the USA and Canada, Australia and New Zealand and quite a few from Europe who speak good enough English to keep up or simply live here, like me.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to paddyholt]

As PMRpro has said could be the beginnings of a flare - and it very often goes for weakest spot - so if that's where it started, why not? Could be bursitis as well as she suggested, so perhaps follow that up with GP in due course. As painkillers don't help them maybe follow protocol for a flare - see link-

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

Charity is UK based, but members and this forum is worldwide..as already explained.

[paddyholt]

Thank you so much for your help.. x

[tangocharlie]

Sounds more like some kind of shoulder impingement or capsulitis, I get this from time to time and it may well be connected with PMR. Last time it was probably trigged by the Covid jab not being done right. A physiotherapist diagnosed a trapped nerve over the phone by which fingers I told him were numb and tingly. He said it would go away in about 8 weeks, which it did. No meds helped but co-codemol helped me sleep. So I'd go and get it checked out by a GP or physio