painful hands finger joints , arthritis or pred withdrawal?

[arvine]

seems my hands started hurting within days after starting taper from 5 to 4 mgs of pred, coincidence? i have been on 4 mgs now over a month or so, since pred is anti inflammatory, considering the 4 mg increase for few days to see if pain relieved, but even if it is arthrits wouldnt increase help with that type of pain also?

[OutdoorsyGal]

My hands and wrists didn’t become a problem till I was completely off prednisone, but they were pretty bad for a long time. Sometimes just extreme weakness, sometimes stiffness, sometimes pain, and then tingling that ran from fingers to elbow. Hard to sleep. I thought maybe I had carpal tunnel or ulnar tunnel syndrome. I did isometric exercises for months, often in a hot tub, which seemed to help a lot. Five years later I still don’t have full strength, but am not in pain anymore.

Good luck!

[Mamamia21]

As I reduced I got pains and swelling in my hands and wrists. They eventually did an ultra sound scan and decided it was arthritis. I am on a biological drug called Barcitinib... very expensive! but I feel good.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Mamamia21]

What SORT of arthritis?

[Mamamia21 in reply to PMRpro]

Seronegative/psoriatic

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Mamamia21]

Oh lovely - not ... What a pain!

[arvine in reply to Mamamia21]

please tell me how they diagnosed psoriatic arthritis seronegative, Ive had bloodwork for RA and since it showed seronegative, rheumy s response is no RA blood test shows seronegative?

[Mamamia21 in reply to arvine]

In the end it was down to having had very mild psoriasis throughout my life and the ultra sound scan showed significant inflammation in my wrists and hands.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to arvine]

Er - seronegative doesn't mean NO RA. It means RA may be present without the markers.

[arvine in reply to PMRpro]

Yes I have heard that , so then how do they acrually determine RA, ?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to arvine]

Usually from imaging showing erosion in joints, done because of symptoms. But for the majority of patients there is a marker, accp, that can be positive long before RA is obvious in imaging and those for whom it is positive will almost certainly develop RA at some later date.

medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/c....

[arvine in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you

[tangocharlie]

I had pain in my hands when I came off Pred at one point. Was tested for things like carpel tunnel and that was negative. OK again when I went back on steroids. But docotrs are adamant hand pain is nothing to do with PMR, ditto swollen feet. Seems more than coincidence to me as this question pops up regularly

[arvine in reply to tangocharlie]

Ah I too have had psroraisis for many years, so did the ultrasound show inflammation in hands? The inflammation matkers showing in my bloodwork, for purposes to check for pmr have not been raised out of a normal range according to rheumy , did you also have bloodwork to check for inflammation in hands?

[tangocharlie in reply to arvine]

Good questions and I'm sorry I can't remember details. I know my markers were up because that's because I still had PMR even though off steroids because they told me it would have gone by then as I'd had PMR over 3 years. It was a very confusing time trying to fathom out what was going on. I eventually had PMR confirmed by PET scan and had to go back on steroids which orted out all sorts of aches adn pains. There's somethng called RS3PE which causes swollen lower legs, feet and hands and sometimes runs alongside PMR, the solution for it is ... drum roll .. steroids

[arvine in reply to tangocharlie]

Sorry to prolong my curiosity, but we have been told to this point, the drs or rhuemys base their diagnosis of PMR on patients symptons and in many cases inlammation markers ie esr and crp, so I am interested in why more drs wouldnt order pet scans for potential pmr diagnosis, but thank you for your comments

[tangocharlie in reply to arvine]

Cost basically, the NHS doesn't have the resources. And PMR is not thought to warrant it. The rheumatologists are on to it though, things will change eventually

[AtopicGuy]

One of the side effects of taking prednisolone for a severe autoimmune disease is that it also calms the symptoms of other, milder, autoimmune disorders. For instance, mild rheumatoid arthritis might quietly 'disappear' while on 15mg/dy for PMR, then suddenly (re)appear from nowhere when the dose falls below 5mg/dy. The same can happen with eczema, allergies, or COPD symptoms. This does not mean all the symptoms are part of the same disease. Nor does it justify staying on high-dose steroids indefinitely. Mild conditions are better treated with non-steroidal medicines.

[arvine in reply to AtopicGuy]

Thank you