PMR and lower back pain

@novabill - I have a constant lower back ache but don't experience the extreme pain that you do. I also had the lower back ache when my PMR was active but didn't consider it part of my typical PMR symptoms. Here's some related information I found.

Interspinous bursitis is common in polymyalgia rheumatica, but is not associated with spinal pain:
-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265351/

It sounds like you are taking the prednisone at night for your PMR. Have you considered checking with your rheumatologist to see if taking it in the morning or splitting the dose for morning and night might help? Also, you mentioned you first experienced the pain a few days ago. Do you remember doing anything that first day that may have caused the lower back pain?

I'm currently taking 25 mg of Prednisone for GCA. From time to time, I have a sore shoulder. I take 500 mg of Tylenol and the pain goes away. The standard analgesic dosage of acetaminophen is 2 x 325 mgs. Just avoid NSAIDs with Prednisone - naproxen, ibuprofen, etc. Hope that helps.

I can take two Advil if things get bad. For the worst, I use Tramadol. Try not to taper too suddenly: I am at 15 mg right now, going to try and taper starting tomorrow. I had a terribl flare after getting down to 2 mg. The muscle weakness is almost worse than the pain. I feel unstable in the hips. Take care, Judith