in process of coming off Pred

[JessJess21]

hello all

So im on week three of coming down from 30mg to 0 !! Im now back on 15 mg.

Consultant rheumatologist has asked me to taper at 5mg a week! History is now might not be PMR even tho i have all symptoms ( just not responding to steroids) - so until he sees me agsin im alowd naproxen ( which seems to help) and the tapering steroids. Its a bit baffling really. Im still in pain - shoulders and knees and feeling weak when i have to pick things up. On top of that my boss wants me to go to into work for pointless finance meeting - for first time i have pushed back. Im not going. I scored high for ptsd in a recent assessment for councelling due to work stress. I think i need to take it easier at work as through all of this ive been working full time. I still sometimes cant believe its happening to me, but the pain wakes me up. Still csn not express how important my ( private ) physio has been.

will keep you posted - as even if not PMR - might be interesting for lesrning.

best wishes to you all jess

[piglette]

Has anyone considered it might be fibromyalgia?

[JessJess21 in reply to piglette]

Rheumatologist and Gp think not as inflammatory markers are seen in bloods ( fybro usually no markers ?) - but it might be i suppose. Tho steroids would work on that? No idea really. Will ask doc. X

[piglette in reply to JessJess21]

Steroids would not work at all on fibromyalgia. They say that you can sometimes get raised inflammatory markers with fibromyalgia.

‘ One such marker is C-reactive protein (CRP), which is commonly used as an indicator of acute inflammatory processes (12). CRP has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, as studies have repeatedly reported elevated CRP levels in fibromyalgia syndrome. ‘ ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....

‘mayoclinic.org/diseases-con...

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to JessJess21]

You can have more than one thing - we have several members with both fibro and PMR and they say the symptoms are clearly different.

[JessJess21 in reply to PMRpro]

Yes i think thats what happening too - thank you

[PMRpro Ambassador]

If Naproxen works and pred doesn't, one common differential diagnosis is an axial spondyloarthropathy which can present almost identically to PMR - especially in older female patients, just to confuse the issue.

As for work - get your union rep on side if there is one, and get signed off sick until your management makes accommodations for your illness. Whatever it is, you are ill and you don;t need work adding to that.

Where and when is the pain that wakes you up?