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Just diagnosed and still hurt in am with 20 mg
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jan 14 7:21am | Replies (23)Comment receiving replies
@obxpoppop Good morning -- As @dadcue just said , the best we can do is relate our experiences and there are many other conversations about who started at what dose and what was the tapering schedule and advice about splitting the dose and keeping a pain journal . @johnbishop may invite you to tell more about yourself.
There is likely a'miracle dose' of Prednisone that will rid you entirely of morning pain and stiffness in BOTH your hips and shoulders. For me that does was 30 mg after being on sub- optimal dose of 20mg. Because i am 66 yr old woman i was advised to take Ca++, Vit D (my bone density results show i only have osteopenia)
Before i went on Medical leave from my Molecular Biology position in biotechnology ( because i could not function with the persistent morning pain in shoulders) I drew this word problem on the white board ! ha ha. I did indeed keep a pain journal /heat map of both areas of my body recorded at three times a day !
the other figure shows what is going on at the cellular level and there are anti-IL6 recepetor biologicals approved for PMR - you may already have seen this web site ? : PMRandIL6.com
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Analytics can be funny especially when things are over analyzed!
My rheumatologist never told me how much prednisone to take. When I was first diagnosed with PMR, my rhematologist was perplexed with my account of how much prednisone I was taking each and every day. She said I should "find a stable dose of prednisone that worked."
At my followup visit, I reported that 40 mg was a stable dose that was working well. She seemed to think 40 mg was a "bit much" for PMR and said I should try reducing my dose.
I was pleased to report that I was on 30 mg at my next visit. My rheumatologist checked my CRP and ESR and said I should take a "bit more" prednisone. When it was all said and done, we settled on 35 mg as my starting dose.
I probably could have used more guidance as the years went on. After about 5 years, my visits were more focused on "how much prednisone I was taking" instead of PMR. To be honest, I wasn't convinced that I still had PMR because my symptoms were not the same as when I was originally diagnosed. At one stage, I suggested that my rheumatologist was prescribing prednisone to me just because I wanted prednisone. I called myself a "prednisone junkie" but she scoffed at that.
It wasn't like my rheumatologist was concerned about "how much" prednisone I was taking because she made sure I would never run out of prendisone. My rheumatologist was more concerned when I was going in the wrong direction and "how long" I was on prednisone.