holiday, medication, insect repellent etc

[Excelsior80]

this is a trivial question but are there any issues using insect repellent like DEET with PMR or pred ? currently on 9mg and going to Spain for a week. And should I take extra prednisolone with me in case of problems? Its a light walking holiday but i'll be alert to not overdoing it 🙂

[Excelsior80]

i did search but maybe not effectively, useful information though about taking anti histamine in vase more bites than usual..

[PMRpro Ambassador]

"Its a light walking holiday but i'll be alert to not overdoing it"

You will, will you? They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions!!! And what was "light" pre-PMR may not be light now. I used to find that fatigue could hit suddenly and anywhere - so that happening in the middle of a not easily accessible bit of terrain can be rather embarrassing.

Where are you walking? What altitude? How much do you walk at home - and at what altitude?

As long as you aren't licking it off, I can't see a problem as the skin absorption seems very low for DEET-based products

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

And yes, absolutely take plenty of spare pred just in case.

[Excelsior80 in reply to PMRpro]

thanks .... i did something quite inadvisable early on about exercise .... not sure i want to admit what it was 🙂 ... my GP said important to exercise a bit if i can but not if tired, and suggested yoga, swimming, walking .... so far i feel better and sleep better if i do some exercise .... but ive only been doing this pmr since june and im definitely aware of everyones strong warnings

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Excelsior80]

Ah yes - but yoga, swimming and walking near to home are all things you can bale out of. Walking holidays aren't always!! Yes, some exercise does make you feel better but even a holiday can be a stress about which PMR may protest!

Hope you find some decent weather - so you can relax in the sun at least even if the walking turns out to be a bit much. Perhaps the most important aspect is to build up distance gradually and allow rest days inbetween - which with planned holidays isn't always easy.

[Excelsior80 in reply to PMRpro]

thank you .... its just me and husband not a group, and i told him its public transport and sit on a beach if I get tired .... 🤞

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Excelsior80]

Great - I'll stop worrying as much!

[Pixix]

we’ve just spent 14 days in France. I’ve done all the driv8ng (good reason, but won’t bore you with it), we were going to spend every other day relaxing in the huge grounds of our gite, but weather forecast good 1st week only,so we went out every day, just walking round small, old towns. Now I need to go home to rest, my shoulders are screaming, & I will be lucky if I don’t have a very bad flare! We did rest for 2 hours each afternoon when back, but it wasn’t enough. Just a friendly warning from somebody who hikes3 times a week locally…every day or every other day, is a different thing! Good luck! I used mosquito repellant as usual. Surely it can’t be a problem? I never even thought of it, tbh! I always take 4 days extra meds & extra pred. You never know if you might not get back from hols on the day you expect to!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Pixix]

Oh come off it - you KNOW we want to know why now!!!! I always drove because the driver's seat in the car was more comfortable. No difference in the camper so he got to drive that!

[Pixix in reply to PMRpro]

Well…as he’s a bit older than me it costs quite a bit more to hire a car in his name or to have him as a named driver. Plus, he did all the driving for forty years of car hire, so I owe him a view of the countryside as we pass!! See, it’s boring!!! S xx

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Pixix]

No it isn't!!! At last if I want to look at the view I can stop without being cross-examined! My drive from here to Fife and back was very enjoyable. If I wanted a cup of tea, I stopped and had one. Car hire for us was only in North America and Aus, everywhere else we took our own. Having flown back last November and had a foul return journey, never again!!!!

[Pixix in reply to PMRpro]

I’m glad you enjoyed your drive! I’ve done my fair share of driving through the USA & Canada inthe past five years, then two holidays in Italy, one in France last year & the holiday we’ve just finished! We got home two hours ago. We are very compatible indeed when on holiday, but we’ve seen a lot of people disagreeing through the years! Even today as we strolled round the marked in Medieval Issigeac, a lady said twice I’m not going to make a big thing out of it…well, ten mins later, it was obvious that she was!! Flight home took 1 hour & 5 minutes, & then 25 minutes to our house. Lovely, except that we landed in a strong cross wind&a cloud burst! S x

[Excelsior80 in reply to Pixix]

thank you so much ! yes ... quite new to this and really not sure what is affected by the steroids, they seem to have so many effects potentially... very useful advice

[Pixix in reply to Excelsior80]

I find I need to do activity one day, then rest one day, on holidays, but don’t judge things by my standard…I suffer from Polymyalgia Rheumatica, Fibromyalgia, Raynauds Syndrome, Osteoarthritis, Hypermobility, Essential Tremor, Vertigo, Trochanteric Bursitis, Haemangioma - spinal, Asthma, Sciatica, Orthostatic Hypertension, Blepharitis & macular Degeneration…& I’m pleased to be able to go away at all! Haven’t been well enough for a year, & my hubby was in hospital 3 times this year & I had to cancel a total of 3 holidays! You just need to find your own level. I am the worst patient. I overdo it often. It means I end up in more pain, I’ve had PMR for over 4 years…and, who knows, it may have been two if d just behaved myself! I find ‘rest’ a definite four letter word, which has no place in my life…so don’t follow me!!

[NewPMR in reply to Excelsior80]

Hi, like you I’m only fairy recently diagnosed so very interested in your PMR journey. I’m also anxious about the long term effect of steroids. I’m currently on 15mg, due to drop to 12.5mg then a further 2.5mg every few weeks which I think might be too much too fast. I’m hoping the doctor will give me some 1mg tablets to allow me to mix and match. Hope all goes well for you.

[Excelsior80 in reply to NewPMR]

Thank you! I hope it goes well for you too. I only did the 2.5 drops down to 10mg, after 10 my doctor says 1 mg less every 6 weeks if no.problems, and some people here say even less is good, like 0.5 mg especially as it gets lower, which makes sense.

[NewPMR in reply to Excelsior80]

Thank you that’s helpful, will try to follow the same pattern, thanks for your reply, all the best with it 🤞