Connect
Discussion
Comment receiving replies
Replies to "Welcome and I'm sorry you have PMR. If you have significant morning pain you might want..."
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Sep 19 5:47pm | Replies (38)
Comment receiving replies
Welcome and I'm sorry you have PMR.
If you have significant morning pain you might want to try splitting your Prednisone dose so you take a small portion in the evening. For example, if 15 mg is your total dose maybe take 10 mg in the morning and 5 mg in the evening. I was able to eliminate the morning pain by doing it that way.
Some doctors may not agree and say you should take your entire dose in the morning. My doctor was aware of what I was doing and encouraged me to split my dose if it worked better that way.
Replies to "Welcome and I'm sorry you have PMR. If you have significant morning pain you might want..."
Connect
Just as an addendum to splitting your dose. I didn't need to split my dose as I tapered lower because I decreased my evening dose first. By the time I tapered to 10 mg I was taking it all in the morning.
I believe it is the morning pain that is the more crucial part of pain relief. I would wake up early between 3-4 a.m because of pain. The disruption in my sleep pattern contributed to my problem. Taking too much prednisone in the evening might make it hard to fall asleep. You might need to adjust the morning portion and evening portion to find what works the best for you.
Only decrease your dose when you can get through the night and wake up in the morning with minimal pain but not necessarily no pain. This is a good indication that you can decrease the evening dose while leaving the morning dose the same. You will wind up taking your entire dose in the morning which will keep your doctor happy.
Everyone is different. Try to keep your doctor informed and they might let you "experiment" a bit to figure out what works the best for you.