night sweats

[Soundmusic]

I was diagnosed recently with PMR and for a while doctor thought it was long Covid . I started on 15 mg of prednisone and felt so much better 24 hours later .I am now on10 mg but have noticed I am getting night sweats since reducing . Is this common? They are not too bad and certainly not wringing wet sweats .

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Hi and welcome!

Night sweats are common in GCA and also sometimes seen in PMR - are you sure you weren't experiencing them before being diagnosed? Pred can also cause sweats - day and night, This makes it difficult to decide which is causing them.

However, many of us would agree that if you haven't been having too much bother with sweats and then you reduce the pred dose and they appear it is a sign that the new dose is now perhaps not quite enough to deal with the inflammation and you are verging on a flare of symptoms. They may feel "not too bad" but they are a warning of what may come if youa ren't careful.

Did your doctor tell you to reduce directly from 15 to 10mg in a single overnight step? That is how you normally reduce when on a course of pred and are now to get off pred but it really doesn't work well in PMR and a much slower approach is required. The pred has cured nothing - you start with a dose that is plenty to manage the inflammation and to clear out any that has built up, but then you taper the dose to find the lowest effective dose, the lowest dose that manages the inflammation being created on a daily basis as well as the starting dose did.

It would be really helpful for us so we can help you if you give us a bit more info about your journey so far - when it started, how it started, what the doctor did and how you started on pred and have reduced the dose so far. You could put it here or add it to your bio on your profile page where we can refresh our memory any time you ask a question - it may sound nosey but we aren't, I promise!!

DorsetLady will be along later - she is in New Zealand at present so a bit out of sync! She has an introductory post that will give you a good background to PMR and living with it. Once you have assimilated a bit more - ask more specific questions or you will be overwhelmed with info and feel as if you are drowning!!

[piglette]

I had terrible sweats initially with PMR, but it did improve once I was below 10mg. I used to look as if I had been swimming. When I told the rheumatologist, he just laughed!!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi and welcome,

As PMRpro has said I’m on foreign shores at the moment -but still around, maybe so much ‘out of sync’ as ‘ahead of time’ [in a weird way😊]… anyway, here’s my intro post.

It’s a bit long at first read, so please hang on to it, and re-read bits as you go along. It will make more sense as yiu get to know your illness better, and it does contain links to other posts, so read those as well, and some of the responses from others which might clarify points..

healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...

..and remember], there’s always someone around to help..

[Tappo]

I had severe night sweats when started on Prednisolone. They resolved after a few weeks.

[jennycat]

Hello, really interested in your post. I was having frequent drenching nights sweats and occasionally day ones in the months before diagnosis of pmr. When I started the initial 15mg of pred they reduced. When I reduced to 10 mg over a few months the sweats returned. I went back up to 15 mg about 10 days ago and in the last two days the sweats seem to have gone again. I am on HRT and was blaming it on the menopause but there does seem to be a direct link to the amount of pred I am on and therefore I assume a lessening of ininflammatory action frofrom the pmr

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to jennycat]

Sweats as opposed to just warmth was in infallible sign I was verging on a flare.

[jennycat in reply to PMRpro]

I am beginning to listen to what my body is telling me and the sweats are something I will have to keep an eye on. Originally I was going to reduce my pred straight back down to 9 mg after a week but have now realised that I should have stayed on 15 mg originally for a lot longer. The plan at the moment is to do 3 weeks at 15 mg and reduce slowly.