PMR pain management with medical cannabis

I have CBD drops. I don’t think those gummies are available in my country. How many drops are good to sleep for 6 hours in a row?!?

I really couldn’t tell you the individual dosage based on your product. A good rule of thumb is “start low and go slow”. I started with half of a gummy and then increased to a full gummy because I had no side apparent side effects. When I have slept well and pain continues to abate for a full month I will cut back to a half gummy, then maybe a quarter gummy.
If your liquid CBD recommends a dropper full maybe you could start with half of that.
Please note that this is not a recommendation or prescriptive. It is just what I have done to help deal with pain and insomnia.
I have read that CBD doesn’t work immediately so be patient.

For PMR and insomnia, I grew my own plants, harvested, decarboxylated the flowers and extracted into coconut oil. When I travelled to USA I had to leave my homegrown oil behind. While passing through Las Vegas I bought some CBD. It did not work. However, since legalizing cannabis in Canada I bought 30mg/g THC oil for wonderful relief. My tolerance increased over my 5 years of usage. A bottle containing 760 mg was only lasting for ten evenings. Thinking that was a bit excessive, I went cold turkey for three months and depended on prednisone and hands full of Acetaminophen. Leg pains returned so my Doctor suggested is was in withdrawal and should try a small amount of THC. 30 mg knocked me on my butt so cut to 10 mg which works fine. Yes, different strokes for different folks. We can become used to anything. . .but hanging.

I grow my own cannabis for insomnia. I make a THC butter out of coconut oil and take a half tsp. each evening. Since being diagnosed with PMR last month, I have been smoking it as well for the pain. I am NOT on prednisone, trying to manage this disease with Low Dose Naltrexone. I worry that I am becoming dependent on the weed, but it really helps me with the pain! I only use it in the evening after dinner when my pain is worse...or at least my tolerance for the pain is exhausted. I am grateful each evening for the break from pain. Oh, it also helps tremendously with my state of mind...makes me less depressed and hopeless feeling.

"I worry that I am becoming dependent on the weed, but it really helps me with the pain!"

We get dependent on prednisone too for our cortisol need. This was the worry my medical professionals had. I didn't fully appreciate prednisone dependency until it happened to me. It was hard to know about and appreciate how bad prednisone dependency is until you try to taper off prednisone. I didn't have a prednisone addiction though.

"While prednisone itself is not addictive, some people who use it over an extended period may develop physical dependence. Physical dependence means that the body has adapted to the presence of the drug, and abruptly discontinuing its use can trigger the presentation of withdrawal symptoms."

This is the reason I am trying my best to avoid prednisone. My father had PMR...he was on the drug for 13 years! He was still on in when he died. He tried many times to taper but was unsuccessful.

I didn't understand the complexity of getting off Prednisone until someone who had an adrenal crisis enlightened me. I also took prednisone for more than 12 years to treat PMR.

It wasn't like I didn't understand how to taper off Prednisone. I took Prednisone for other autoimmune problems for more than 20 years before PMR was diagnosed. I had autoimmune uveitis which recurred every year or so. Uveitis can cause vision loss so my ophthalmologist would prescribe 60 mg of prednisone every time I had a flare of uveitis. The only difference was I could always taper off prednisone in about a month to achieve remission of uveitis. Going from 60 mg to zero in a month to treat uveitis wasn't that hard to do.

There was something about PMR that made it more difficult to taper off prednisone. My rheumatologist and I talked and we decided PMR would be a "long term" proposition. Neither of us knew how long I would be on Prednisone and I was never rushed to taper off too quickly.

In retrospect, I wish I had learned about the problem with prednisone dependency much sooner. I got off Prednisone after a biologic was tried. The biologic was used to keep PMR in check while I tapered my prednisone dose lower.

Adrenal insufficiency was "discovered" when I was able to maintain a 3 mg dose of prednisone. The biologic didn't suppress my adrenal function so my cortisol level improved after 6 months. An endocrinologist said I was lucky because sometimes an improvement in cortisol levels never happens after long term prednisone use.

After more than 12 years of trying to taper off prednisone, I was unsuccessful no matter how slowly I tapered my prednisone dose. When the biologic was initiated, I still tapered prednisone slowly at first. Then at 7 mg, I started to taper by 1 mg per week. At 3 mg an endocrinologist informed me my cortisol level was too low to taper any lower than 3 mg. Six months later, the same endocrinologist said my cortisol level had improved. Since my cortisol level was "adequate" I was told it was safe to simply stop prednisone and going from 3 mg to zero shouldn't be a problem. I was reluctant to stop prednisone so I did a fast taper from 3 mg to zero in about a week.

Now I'm off prednisone and feel infinitely better. However, I still do a monthly infusion of the biologic but it controls all my autoimmune problems much better than daily prednisone ever did.

The biologic sounds helpful! I'm not familiar with it though...I will have to research.

What injection med are you using? I use kevzara bi-monthly. My doctor wants me to wean my 2.5 mg prednisone to every other day, How did you taper from the 3mg in a week?

I started with Actemra (tociliumab) injections every 2 weeks. After a year, the injections were changed to weekly. Now I do monthly infusions of Actemra which I like better than doing the injections. Actemra inhibits the IL-6 inflammation pathway in the same way as Kevzara.

I took Prednisone daily for more than 12 years to treat PMR. I wasn't ever able to taper my Prednisone dose much lower than 10 mg during the entire time.

It only took me a year to get off prednisone after Actemra was tried. When I doing Actemra injections every 2 weeks, I was able to taper from 10 mg to 3 mg in four months. When my cortisol level was checked, it was too low for me to continue my Prednisone taper. I had to stay on 3 mg of Prednisone for about 6 months until my cortisol level improved.

After my cortisol level improved, an endocrinologist told me 3 mg was a low dose. I was told at that low of a dose, no taper was necessary. My endocrinologist said I could simply stop taking Prednisone.

As long as my cortisol was "adequate" it would be safe to go from 3 mg to zero. My endocrinologist also checked with my rheumatologist who said I didn't need to be on Prednisone anymore because Actemra was keeping PMR under control.

I was skeptical that I could just stop prednisone after so many years. I was reluctant but when I had enough courage to stop Prednisone I did a "countdown taper" --- 3 mg to 2 mg to 1 mg to zero in one week.

I had a flare but it wasn't a PMR flare. I have multiple autoimmune disorders so treating all of them with one medication is difficult Eventually I was switched to a monthly infusion of Actemra and all of my autoimmune disorders have been controlled. I haven't needed any Prednisone for 4 years. No flares of PMR or anything else as long as I continue my monthly infusions of Actemra.