OTC pain relief while on Prednisone?

The 4 a.m. rude awakening with pain is a common problem with PMR. You might want to try splitting your prednisone dose. You might be amazed how well it works for many people. Your dose of 15 mg lends itself to a split dose - I would suggest 10 mg in the morning and 5 mg in the evening.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/splitting-the-dose/

You might try adding Turmeric. Select one with black pepper (improves the anti inflammatory action). I take Kirkland brand, 1000 mg, two tabs a day. It can take a while before you see results.

I get results pretty quickly and then sustained dosing builds the improvement. Tylenol Extra Strength, taken 2 tabs at 7am, 3pm, 11pm. The combo works well for me.

I too split dose with great success.
try OTC….my rheumatologist told me Tylenol for ARTHRITIS….
Love this group too

I have topical diclofenac gel at my bedside for
shoulder pain. Good idea to try Mediterranean diet and
I always take prednisone with food or an antacid at night.

Hi there, your situ seems pretty much the same as mine. I got diagnosed three weeks ago although I’d had it for three weeks prior. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people that just woke up one morning and had PMR. I’m currently on 10 mg of prednisone and it seems to work in the most part, but between 2 and 4 am I wake up really sore. It is as if the prednisone has now worn off. So I now take the prednisone at that time with a paracetamol (OTC) and then go back to sleep. Most of the time I’ll wake up okay. A bit sore but not so bad. This group is great for answering many of my questions

@colleennz So your sleep is not disrupted by taking the Prednisone in the middle of the night as some here have warned?

Yes, I too am a PMR newbie relative to most here -- just woke up with it one day about 7 weeks ago and got diagnosed last week.

The 15mg Prednisone successfully conquers the pain and stiffness throughout my body with the exception of my left shoulder joint from 3:00 a.m. to wake up time. If I could just fix that I would be able to sleep and enjoy all the benefits that entails.

Starting today I am planning to try the suggestions above to split my dose (66% in the morning and 33% with dinner), and try the Arthritis formulation (i.e., time-release) of Tylenol/paracetamol. So far, Tylenol doesn't seem to help me at all (even 1,000mg).

Good luck colleennz!

@superfly999 I think the split dose is gonna be key for me. No, the prednisone has not kept me awake at all. If anything I’m feeling tired most of the time. I may not be taking enough prednisone and the PMR is making me tired ( if that makes sense). Well it seems we are both newbies here and let’s nail it together with the support of this group

Same dose as you. I always wake up around 3-4 am and I have pain in my hands. I take 2 Tylenol Arthriti, go back to sleep till 5am and hands are less painful. I take my prednisone at 8 am. My rheumatologist is against splitting my dose as he wants the 15 mg to carry me into the night which is does.

@vjm0223

Some rheumatologists are adamant about taking the entire Prednisone dose in the morning. There are other doctors who say to do whatever works the best to control pain.

It isn't necessary to split your dose. When the total body pain woke me up and it was so severe that I couldn't go back to sleep, that was when I split my dose.

I also experienced pain and stiffness in my hands without too much body pain anywhere else. The hand pain didn't wake me up so much. It was more like I was on the fringe of being asleep and being awake. I would flex my hand and make note of how they felt while still being partially asleep. To a certain degree I varied my Prednisone dose that I took a 8 a.m. by +/- 1 mg depending how stiff and sore my hands were.

I didn't have any tapering scheme that was predetermined. My Prednisone dose varied by how I felt. It took me 12 years before I could paper off Prednisone. I had many relapses along the way that were confirmed by elevated inflammation markers.

I understand. Since I’m only on 10 mg and due to reduce by 1mg per month, I don’t want to deviate from what he told me to do and mess up my dosages. I’ll see how I do when I start reducing. For now, the Tylenol Arthritis get me through to the point I’m not waking up stiff.