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Shoulder pain after lifting heavier weights while in remission
I have been in remission for years, but have experienced twice now that when I increase my light weights from 4# to 5#, my shoulder pain returns (only while in bed). I got up this morning and my pain is gone! I had a mild case of PMR in 2021 that lasted about a year and I only experienced pain while laying in bed. No one has been able to explain this to me, but I will now reduce my weights back to 4#. BTW, I also do pilates, aquatic fitness, and dancing and those light weights are the only thing that seems to trigger my pain! Anyone else?
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The pain while lying in bed is a mystery to me too. I have never heard an explanation for that. I got to bed feeling ok. About an hour after going to sleep I awake in pain. Rolling over in bed is extremely painful in my shoulders. After a year on prednisone I thought I was ok. Off of prednisone a couple of weeks and now pain has returned. Nights are still the worst. Is it because I am immobile or because I am sleeping on my back? I tried sleeping in a recliner to see if it made a difference. It was a little better but I was up more in the night. No medication, oral or topical, seems to help. I can't take NSAIDs so I don't know if they would help. I don't want to go back on prednisone but the pain is lasting longer into the day.
I'm doing a fast taper of prednisone because in addition to PMR I was recently diagnosed with SMM. I'm willing to accept some PMR pain as a trade-off for accurate assessment and monitoring of my SMM off prednisone. I've seen a few posts mentioning LDN so I did a little research and discussed it with my rheumatologist as an option to mitigate any PMR pain during the taper and he agreed. I've taken it two nights so far and I can't say that it's suppressing any pain yet but it's helping me sleep, so maybe it's eliminating that discomfort that makes you turn over or wake up during the night. I'm a side sleeper so I have had some shoulder discomfort during the night too with PMR. Insurance won't cover LDN so I paid out of pocket. My local compounding pharmacy charges $65 for a months worth but I know there's other pharmacies a little further away that only charge $80-90 for a 3 month supply.
I am also tapering steroids, and ran into this issue earlier this year. The happy discovery I made is that PT completely solved my shoulder issue, and I no longer have pain there while laying in bed. You'll need to find a good PT though
@pdxmac my shoulder pain was gone the next day, fortunately. Last time this happened, I had to take a small dose of prednisone to get over it.