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PMR Dosages and Managing Symptoms
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jul 27 8:00am | Replies (468)Comment receiving replies
Thanks for adding me to the group .
I am 64 and was diagnosed by my GP with PMR 10 weeks ago , all my bloods were in normal range but classic symptoms . Shoulder , hip and thigh pains /stiffness with extreme fatigue .
Started on 15mg Pred for 3 weeks then down to 10mg for 4, after that to start tapering by 1mg every 4 weeks . First 3 or 4 days on 9 mg were OK but since then I have become increasingly worse , in fact it’s getting worse than a few weeks ago . I have increased to 12 mg over the last 3 days but not helping . I think perhaps I need to go back up to 15mg and tapper more slowly , any thoughts ?
Sorry if that was a little drawn out . Thanks
Replies to "Thanks for adding me to the group . I am 64 and was diagnosed by my..."
@spainishlady I would say your trouble started when you dropped from 15 straight to 10. Dropping 10% is pretty safe. 10 mg. was likely not enough prednisone and the inflammation began to accumulate. That caused a flare. Typical flare treatment is to go up 5 mgs. until you stabilize and then go back to where you last felt good. Going back to 15 to stabilize and then starting a slow taper (no lower than 12.5) should work.
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Hi @spainishlady, Welcome to Connect. You will notice that we moved your post to an existing discussion on the same topic here - PMR Dosages and Managing Symptoms: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pmr-dosages/. If you click the link it will take you to the beginning of the discussion so that you can read through the posts by other members who have shared their experiences.
I don't have a medical background or training but I have had two occurrences of PMR which is currently in remission since 2018. I was started on 20 mg prednisone for both occurrences by my rheumatologist. The first time it took 3-1/2 years to taper off with the last six months going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I could finally stop taking it with little to no pain on my pain scale. My rheumatologist suggested I keep a daily pain log along with the dosage to track my tapering. He also said I may not be able to taper if my pain was too much based on my own scale not his. I never tapered down if my pain was above a 2 on my pain scale.
My thoughts would be to go back to the last dosage that you felt good at when getting up the next morning and start from there and possible taper with smaller drops in dosage if possible. Generally even if I had a little pain in the morning it would get better after moving around some and taking my next dose of prednisone.
Do you track your pain and the dosage amount?