Left shoulder pain

I’m still way off getting down to your level of Pred as on 10mg for several weeks now after diagnosis of PMR in August and stating on 20mg. Funny thing is I’ve occasionally experimented with taking a little chunk out of a 5mg pill and took maybe 9mg or 9.5 just to experiment and sure enough I had a mild shoulder pain the next day although nothing at all bad. I guess it shows how delicate a balancing act it is on the taper down. If I was in your position I would try to continue the taper but maybe slightly more slowly ?

Right now I have the exact situation. It’s my left shoulder, which is the worst and I’m hoping it’s not another issue. Although the pain is much worse in my left side it mimics the same as I have on my right so I’m hopeful it’s still PMR. When I take my dose in the morning usually by mid afternoon or especially after playing sports neither shoulder hurt so who knows. As I said I’m down to 2 mg but I’m kind of stuck there right now so we’ll know more months to come.

You have been on prednisone for a year now. Your taper is right at the point of required cortisol. You probably can not assume its still inflammation. Although at the 4mg and less the lack of cortisol can restart your inflammation. At this point, each taper is going to come with some reminders. You need to continue the taper to try and coax your body into restarting cortisol. Yet continuing to do so will come with some pain. Go slow. I would look into one of the biologics such as Actemra. You may also find when get through this that other things are going on. My right shoulder always hurt and would loosen up during the day. I found out I had a slap tear.

PMR symptoms started October, 2025. Dx in December and started @15 mg prednisone. By June I was at 5 mg and started to taper by .5 mg every 2 weeks. Worked okay til I hit 2 mg. Had to go back to 3 mg in September and start again to taper. I am experiencing some mild left shoulder pain. My left side has always registered more pain than my right. I am putting it down to other issues than PMR.

@martyn
Only scored pills can be split with an accurate dosage. Pills that are not scored do not provide an even distribution of the actual meds. Splitting a pill in half that is not scored doesn't guarantee you are getting a 50% dosage. Likewise, if a pill is scored to be split in half and you further split that half, you are still not getting an accurate dosage. Pills are only meant to be split where they are scored.

My PMR started in August of 2025. Was diagnosed in November. I also have a lot of left shoulder pain now. I tapered off in March of 2026. Then after two flair ups and back on prednisone I was off in June of 26 and then after 106 days I went back on because of the left shoulder pain mainly when sleeping at night. I could still mow etc without pain in the shoulder. I did go back on 5mg of prednisone for a week then 2.5mg for a week and now on 1mg and will stop on Thursday. My rheumatologist wanted me before I went back on prednisone to do an x-ray on the shoulder because he thought since my inflammation markers were normal I shouldn't feel any problems from the PMR. He obviously is not on this group seeing people struggle with it even though inflammation markers are normal. I told his nurse if I needed to anything it would be my left knee pain. I am a 62 year old male and have always been active. Good luck moving forward! Bill

@kjoed53 that’s good to know. Thanks for the head’s up

Retiredphil.
Obviously a lot of us have the shoulder pain. Mostly left for me, I’m right handed and I’ve read that that is most common.
I get it in my right shoulder too but less often. I usually feel it just before getting out of bed.

I read an article last week referring to the pain this way:
Shoulder pain especially in a way resembling pulling a sword from a scabbard.

That is exactly the pain that I have. I use light dumbbells, bean cans, water bottles, whatever is handy at any time of the day and do the sword drawing motion, for 2-4 sets of 10 repetitions.

Standing, I pull the weight from the opposite hip in front of my belly and extend my arm up and over my head in a finish motion like waving a flag. Then slowly return to the starting position and repeat.

The pain usually subsides during or after that simple exercise, which can be done anywhere and at your need. Try it if you are able.

Just because I enjoy working out, I also do lawnmower pulls with a dumbbell and overhead presses. These also seem to help. The pain goes away for a few days. And when it comes back, I do it again. Works as good as and safer than Prednisone.

I took my last Prednisone 4 weeks ago, my last Kevzara 7 weeks ago. When diagnosed, I was started at 40 mg/day of Prednisone.
Zero is good.

I have a little bit of hip pain too, which requires me to do a quick one-two count before walking. But it goes away after a few steps.

I have to laugh at my new self sometimes. I’m retired but PMR occupies my attention like a new occupation.

Do you sleep on your side? Side sleeping can compress the bursa on that side and cause unilateral pain out of proportion with the other side that you don’t sleep on.

Before diagnosing myself with PMR, I thought shoulder pain, worse in right, was due to too much weight lifting and side sleeping. I still have more pain in the shoulder that I sleep on.

PTs give advice to hug a medium-firm pillow against your chest to stop your top arm and shoulder from rolling inward and collapsing. https://limitlesspts.com/side-sleeping-shoulder-pain-best-positions-for-relief/

I had the same so I split my dose. At this point I’m down to 2 mg so I went with 1/2 at night and 1 1/2 in the morning. Now I still have pain in my left shoulder but it’s not bothering me near as much at night so I’m sleeping better and as you said, I’m working it off during the day so I don’t get bothered too much by it. But before I would go up, I would try a split. Just my thoughts.