Flare

@gingergirl24, Sorry to hear you are struggling with the tapering schedule. I'm not a doctor and can only relate from my experience with 2 occurrences of PMR. It sounds like the prednisone controlled your pain until you tapered down to 3 mg and then it kicked up it's ugly head again. Being diagnosed in June of this year is still pretty early in the tapering game to be at the 3 mg dose from my experience but everyone is different. I think I would have a discussion with my doctor or rheumatologist again. There are alternative treatments that work with prednisone and might be helpful. Do you keep a daily log of your level of pain when you first get up in the morning along with your prednisone dose for the day?

1mg reduction every 2 weeks is a very fast reduction schedule, hardly enough time for your body to get used to each dosage drop before doing another one. It may just have caught up with you. You did well to get to 3mg before pain returned. I think most people here would be reducing more slowly. I reduce by .5mg a month which is 1mg every 8wks - the reduction instructions were 1mg every 4-8wks and I'm taking the slower option after having a flare.

How often do you meet with your rheumatologist, or can you ring them for advice to ask about what to do in your current situation and about the pace of reductions under 5mg?

I have managed this PMR for the last 7 years. Up and down with prednisone. Today I am at 5mg trying to bring it down but frankly would not be surprised if I have to stay on 5 mg the rest of my life. At least I have absolutely no pain,,

I’m new to PMR as well but I wanted to give my thoughts. PMR pain and stiffness is supposed to be well confined to specific muscles and generally equally bilateral. Seems very possible that your pain is from something else, especially if you are increasing your dose without a change. My rheumatologist instructed me if I taper and I have significant pain to go to the last effective dose (seems like 4 mg in your case). I personally wouldn’t keep increasing but would seek advice from my rheumatologist. I wish you all the best and commend you on getting to 3 mg since June without much issue.

gingergirl24…
It is best to be reasonably certain that your pain is PMR before thinking about increasing your prednisone dose. Most folks here will agree that adjustments in dose should only be made in consultation with your doc, who might want to do SED and/or CRP testing first.
Pain in the PMR experience is not always PMR pain, and therefore prednisone is not necessarily the correct treatment. Best to you.

I appreciate all the responses to my questions regarding what I interpreted as a flare of my PMR. I do track daily dose and pain level. I had the discomfort for a couple weeks before I considered a PMR flare. I last saw my Rheumatologist when I was at 10mg Prednisone. He instructed me if I had a flare to increase my Prednisone dose. Vague instructions but perhaps knowing I am a recently retired RN he felt more comfortable with that. I actually have any appointment with him today. I'll see what he says.

Does anyone ever get fatigue without pain? I'm trying to figure out if this fatigue is from a PMR flare or if it's just because work has been too much lately. Or that work has created a flare. Or who knows!

Yep, I get fatigue at times that I do not have pain. Mid to late afternoon usually. No special reason I should have it, just ordinary day. Who knows, eh?

Having no pain is a blessing. I am prepared to continue with some pain if I can get my prednisone at 2-3. Still working on that so we will see.

I was diagnosed with PMR in the fall of 2023. I was down to 2 mg of prednisone a day and pretty much pain free. I just returned from a trip that involved being on an airplane for 5 hours and have been in pain since returning. Wondering if being confined in the seat on the plane may have caused a flare . Has anyone else experienced the same ?