Pulled muscle

[Potemkin]

Hi - I rolled over in bed pulling the quilt over me and pulled a shoulder muscle. After a week I was in excruciating referred pain down my arm and into my hand. It took 3 weeks before this lessened. I've been in touch with the Dr and also had physio.

I'm now on week 5 and the pain is much less but still there and I'm improving but it's very slow.

This happened to me with lower back pain in November that took about 2 months to heal.

Has anyone else experienced pulled muscles taking much longer to heal than expected?

I know I need to work on posture and core strength and will definitely be doing this once I'm in a position to do so.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Now you have asked, you can see related posts, but PMR affected muscles can be less resilient than usual, and some people do have problems. One of the reasons why exercise [in moderation] is important.

Pred also has the effect of slowing down the normal healing process.

Hope you soon feel better..

[Potemkin in reply to DorsetLady]

Thank you.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It is something we warn about a lot - avoidance is the better part of valour!!! After many years of back problems though - I don't think it is significantly worse than after repeated injury without pred. But the underlying autoimmune attack due to PMR also has an effect I think.

[RunnerJoe]

I went through a period of time in my prednisone taper where my muscles were being strained very easily. This was from 20 mg of prednisone down to 10. I gave up strenuous exercise during that time. After I got down to 10 mg I tried exercising again, and so far it has gone ok. I was able to jog at a slow pace for 45 minutes yesterday with no issues. Also, even when my muscles were strained, they actually recovered very rapidly. I don't know if the prednisone aided with the recovery while causing the problem at the same time. I had one strain in my quad that bled internally, but it recovered in 2 -3 days. I have maintained some fitness the whole time I've been sick and under treatment by walking every day and lifting weights and stretching every other day, so maybe that helped with the faster recovery.

[piglette]

I do find swimming helps. Even if you just take it really slowly the water resistance does help your muscles.

[Lyndaki]

I had a fall in October & really hurt my back & the muscles in my upper body. I’m still suffering the effects, although to a much lesser degree! I’m working on back strengthening exercises as advised by my physio but it’s a long & slow process…certainly in my case! Good luck!

[Potemkin in reply to Lyndaki]

Good luck to you too - it's so frustrating!

[Lyndaki in reply to Potemkin]

Indeed! 🙄and thank you.