"I think anything is better than having to increase your prednisone."
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Not always ... some of my flare-ups were pretty severe. I remember a time when I thought I was going to die and succumb to the pain alone. It wasn't PMR though. It was radicular leg pain from severe spinal stenosis. I was hanging on from the top of a door thinking I was going to die if I let go. Someone convinced me to let go. I upped my Prednisone dose to 60 mg and the pain went away.

I told my rheumatologist about the incident while she was studying my MRI. She wasn't so pleased that I took so much Prednisone. She told me what she would have recommended. She said a localized steroid injection, physical therapy and probably surgery would have been better. She was happy the 60 mg of Prednisone relieved my pain though. I lied and told her "next time" I would try to do it her way.

At the time of this incident .., I had an abscess on my butt. I recently tapered off Prednisone when the pain started. It amazed me how that abscess caused so much back pain. I saw a doctor on a Friday who prescribed antibiotics for the abscess and said the antibiotic should help with the pain. The pain got worse when the door incident happened on Sunday. I went to the emergency room after I took Prednisone but had to wait for hours for the MRI to be done. By then the pain was gone.