Flare after TKR update

[Miserere]

Just an update - I have taken ibuprofen regularly but no improvement and today I feel incredibly fatigued. I have therefore increased from 6.5mg to 10mg and will stay at this level for at least a week provided it solves the problem.

Strangely it seems that everything but the knee hurts! Recovery has gone well and I wonder if it's gone a bit too well for PMR. I find this illness so frustrating - I can, and have, dealt with high blood pressure and pre-diabetes through diet; I have aided the knee recovery by exercise - but - when it comes to PMR it seems there is nothing I can do!

I can still raise my arms etc. but as the day wears on I become stiffer, in the neck, down the arms and across the shoulders which has made it difficult to sleep. I read a lot and at the end of the day the elbow of the arm that holds the book almost locks and is hard to straighten out. Some of this doesn't feel like the original PMR but I suppose things change. I know things need to re-align but with discomfort in neck and head it makes me wonder about GCA. Hopefully tomorrow I shall start to feel more like me.

Thanks for all your advice which is such a help and thanks for reading this.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

As things seem to be deteriorating as the day goes by, that may well indicate your current dose is not enough - so hope the increase helps- and you can stay for up to 2 weeks on that without impacting on drop back down.

The elbow problem could certainly be connected to the neck issue, which as we discussed in previous post could be a due to crutch usage… so have doubts about GCA.

Plenty of TLC required, and hopefully the extra Pred will help as well.

Might be worth having a look at neck exercises - but go gently - this is a starter

youtu.be/eme0i13WgTk(Not working as expected?)

[Miserere in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you for responding, DL. Good, sensible advice, as ever. Because the knee is functioning quite well I looked for additional exercises to get the rest of the body working after an enforced rest at the beginning, hence yoga and somatics etc. but perhaps the PMR has other ideas and, yes, you are probably right about the crutch and shoulder/head pains - I certainly hope so. I was doing soooo well .....

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I agree with DL!

[piglette]

You may find that the fatigue is in fact the deathly fatigue from your adrenal glands complaining about being woken up.

[Miserere in reply to piglette]

Thanks, Piglette, but I was fine on 6.5mg before surgery and afterwards - it's only now that I am doing more,maybe, that the fatigue has hit although I did experience it immediately post-surgery.