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PMR's effect on my hands
Has PMR affected your hands? In February, I noticed my legs and arms were often sore and stiff (no pain in my neck or shoulders). I lived with the pain for three weeks before seeing my doctor. He diagnosed my situation as PRM and put me on prednisone with taper. I am now down to 1.25 mg a day. My legs have been pain free for several weeks, and my arms are also mostly pain free. I don't know whether the soreness in my arms is due to doing something I shouldn't be doing (age 83) or whether it is a residual of PRM. Maybe 6 weeks after I was first treated, I noticed quite a bit of pain and stiffness in my hands. We didn't increase the amount of prednisone once it began affecting my hands. The pain sometimes feels like i stuck my hands in a very hot pot of water. Other times, it feels like many bee stings on my hands. My hands are also often numb or "asleep," especially when I wake up in the morning. Within 10 minutes or so after getting up, the pain/sensations are generally gone for the day, although at times, my hand still go to sleep and become numb during the day. I really shouldn't be complaining when I read about what some of you in the group have gone/are going through. I see my doctor in a couple of weeks. I'll see what he suggests but am wondering whether any of you have had significant hand pain.
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Hello @zkeith, My PMR is currently in remission but I still have some morning hand symptoms like you describe. I'm 82 and have other conditions that may be the cause of the hand symptoms - carpal tunnel, degenerative arthritis and a few others. When I wake up in the morning my hands are usually a little stiff and tingly which I think may be from hand positions when I sleep but I'm not sure. I use over the counter pain lotions that help some and I bought some hand/wrist/finger exercise gadgets to help build up my hand strength.
Quite a few members have mentioned hand pain with PMR. You might find it helpful to scan through the related discussions and comments from members while you wait for others to respond - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/?search=pmr+hand+pain.
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1 ReactionI’m 58, with no other known issues except PMR. About 18 months ago I started experiencing stiffness and pain in one finger. Doctor told me likely trigger finger and wanted to put a splint on it. A couple of weeks later it speed to all fingers on my left hand. Much worse in morning. A month later, I began experiencing debilitating symptoms in my shoulders and hips. While inflammatory markers were low, I was quite dysfunctional at that time. 20 mg of Prednisone solved all symptoms, but came with new ones. (Ex. Glucose, blood pressure, liver enzymes, etc). I tapered from 20 to 10 mg. Side effects all along the way. Including stiffness and pain in left hand and fingers. Shaking hands with others hurt. With the benefit of Kevzara, I’m now down to 2mg. Main side effect is left hand fingers discomfort worse in morning. Hopefully, when I reach 0 mg prednisone, the finger pain/stiffness will subside. We’ll see.
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2 ReactionsThanks for your tips!
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1 ReactionThanks for your helpful reply.
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1 ReactionMy hands feel hot most of the time. If I touch my husband's arm, he can feel the heat coming out of my hand. It's annoying to live with, but I guess there's a lot about this disease I don't understand. Most of the stiffness is in my legs, and most of the pain is in my shoulders, although I get weird pain in the back of my thighs and calves, especially in the evening. I've just been recently diagnosed with PMR, so I have a lot to learn about what to expect, what is normal and what is not. What's kicking my butt right now is the fatigue. I have no energy and feel very apathetic. My eyelids feel like they're half shut most of the time. What a weird disease!
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2 ReactionsI am 61. I was diagnosed with PMR ar 59 and was put on 15mg prednisone and tappered down to 0 in 18 month. After being completely off prednisone for 2 weeks my hands swelled up and I couldn't even make a fist. My grip strength was 20 lbs. I was tested for RA and it was neg. Dr put me on Meloxicam and it didn't do anything. My inflammation markers were still down. Dr put me back on 10 mg prednisone, the swelling went away and I could use my hands again. Grip strength is now up to 60 lbs. Dr thinks I just came down off of prednisone too quickly. I am back down to 5 mg and still doing ok.
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4 ReactionsI am in similar situation with new hand pain. Tapered off steroids last month. Going to Rheumatologist today. I’ve been tested for RA several times in the past- always negative. My research about RA shows 20% of patients can test negative. I’m still on hydroxychloroquine which was prescribed to help me taper off steroids for my PMR. Maybe my rheumatologist will suggest upping the hydroxychloroquine dose. This drug is usually used for RA patients.
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1 ReactionI seems to me that if PMR is so common (although I had never heard of it until diagnosed with it) that a drug (or drugs) other than prednisone might be useful. But it seems prednisone is the gold standard. It would have been nice to have a drug available that enabled one to become symptom free in just a few days. About all I have left to "fix" is the sometimes rather severe hand pain, especially in the morning.
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1 ReactionI started at 5 mg and went down to fast month after month my Dr put me back to 2 mg in the morning and 2 mg at night but my hands and arm still hurt I started going to red light med. which helps for about 1 hour them the pain comes back and my hand falls asleep
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