My pmr was diagnosed in Dec, 2018 and I started on 20 mg. I started splitting the dose because the discomfort was intense first thing in the morning and I felt much better when I split the dose. I have not been consistent about keeping dose records but looking back at Dr summaries when I got to 10 mg I was doing 6/4, 5/4, 5/3 . Since 2019 I have been up to 10 mg a few times because of flares.
In Jan of this year I was down to 1 mg in the morn and .5 in the eve. And my inflammation markers were very low. Was all good until April when my hands started bothering me. I went back up to 10 mg still splitting the dose and was down to 5 mg by the end of June and was supposed to take all 5 mg in the morning, my hands were better.
Then my hands got bad, swollen, stiff, painful. I could not squeeze the toothpaste one morning, could not twist bottle caps, dropped a skillet one day. My crp was 24 and my WBC was high. So in July I went back up to 10 mg but no more splitting the dose. I'm at 7 mg now. This is my first attempt tapering and not splitting the dose.
pmr hit me 2 months before I turned 70, I was still working. I have other medical issues that are or probably are autoimmune related.
When I was taking the 1 mg in the morning and .5 mg in the evening, I kept asking myself what was the point of taking .5 mg. I personally do not think my hand inflammation is pmr, xrays are indicating osteoarthritis and probable cppd. I did not do anything to aggrevate my hands and it is bilateral. I had this problem in 2019 but it was just my left hand.
They want me to take methotrexate. I worry about the side effects, mainly liver. I had gallbladder surgery 50 yrs ago, back when it was major surgery, had over 1000 gallstones and they did a cholangiogram in the OR to make sure the bile ducts were clear. I consider that liver related so I am saying no to methotrexate.
Life throws you a lot of curve balls, I have had my share.
suzanne