Connect
← Return to New PMR patient, wondering if mornings will become pain free someday
Discussion
New PMR patient, wondering if mornings will become pain free someday
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jun 1 11:10am | Replies (120)Comment receiving replies
Hello all:
I'm very recently diagnosed. I had 3 days of 10mg prednisone from PCP. The rheumatologist then put me on 20 for 5 days, 15 for 5, and then back to 10. Today is day 4 of the 20 mg dose. I am feeling much better but NOT pain free. I want to know what the real goal is: less pain/more function or no pain/pre-diagnosis function. I'll have another blood test on Friday, to see if the inflammation has responded to the steroid (I'm certain it has) and go from there.
Replies to "Hello all: I'm very recently diagnosed. I had 3 days of 10mg prednisone from PCP. The..."
I didn't know anything about PMR when I was newly diagnosed ... in a way, I still don't know very much about PMR.
I knew quite a lot about taking prednisone because of a medical background. The other part was personal experience with taking Prednisone for other autoimmune disorders which were diagnosed at the age of 32. PMR wasn't diagnosed until I was 52 so twenty years of personal experience with taking Prednisone before PMR was diagnosed. Now I'm 15 years post PMR diagnosis.
The initial goal is to find a "stable dose" of prednisone that works for you." That was how my rheumatologist phrased it. At the time, it made sense to me because that wasn't happening at the beginning of PMR so I got off to a rough start.
I don't think being "pain free" is a realistic goal. I was happy with "tolerable pain" that didn't increase as I slowly tapered my prednisone dose lower. All of this was individualized so there are no universal rules that work for everyone. It is more about what works for you.
Connect
I know many talk about immediate relief from the prednisone, but it took me about 2 weeks to get the full benefit, so you may improve over the next week or so. I recall reporting to my doctor that there had been a disappointing 70% improvement only in the first couple of weeks.
You don't drop to 12.5mg and sit there for a few weeks? The jump from 15mg straight down to 10mg is quite a lot. I had 4 weeks on 12.5mg before reducing to 10mg, with drops of 1.5mg then 1mg at a time, down to 10. The general rule seems to be not to decrease by more than 10% of the current dose at a time.