Pain areas move around

I think it can but what do I know? My hands were my barometer for how much "systemic inflammation" I had on any given day. This was especially true in the morning before taking my Prednisone dose. My rheumatologist didn't think my hands were strictly PMR related because she pointed out that I had arthritis in my hands.

I think of inflammation as white blood cells (WBCs) floating around in the blood stream. These WBCs are mobile and can attack almost anywhere they wish when they detect something is wrong. Unfortunately, the detection mechanism of WBCs is faulty when we have an autoimmune disorder.

Thank you. Makes sense to me. I should be grateful it’s just my hands and not everything like before but we use our hands for everything even holding my coffee cup is painful till prednisone kicks in and that’s usually 2 hrs.

Yes ... I understand completely. I needed my hands more than some other parts of me. My hands were only stiff and sore every morning until I took my morning dose of prednisone.

I got annoyed with the question, "where does it hurt?"

PMR hurts everywhere if you ask me. I would have to prioritize where it hurt the most and that was mostly my shoulders when other places didn't hurt as much. On other days my shoulders didn't hurt as much as other places. That made it seem like the pain moved around.

I agree 100%, my pain moves all over the place. I blame PMR for everything but we have to be cautious, in case PMR is not the reason.

For some reason ... inexplicable pain hurts more than pain that can be explained.

In other words ... if I know why something hurts it seems to hurt less. Does that make sense?

I called almost any pain that I could not explain PMR because there was no other reason for the pain.

Prednisone made the pain stop so it must have been PMR.

I know there is some faulty reasoning in there somewhere.

I posted in another thread about terrible foot pain that has now moved into my hands overnight. This is the strangest disorder!

It truly is. I’m sure my family thinks I’m crazy. One day I’m great the next not so great. lol.

I am on my 13th month of battling PMR. (Male, 71, no other major illnesses) Like you I started at 15mg Prednisone and tomorrow I will taper down to 1mg Prednisone. The journey was filled with ups & downs from both a mental aspect (the impact of Prednisone) to physical ailments (such as I developed carpal tunnel and my rheumy had me wear wrist braces, and in two weeks it was gone). The pains have indeed traveled throughout my body, but in the long run they settled in on my shoulders & hips. My last major flare was about 8 weeks ago but went away after a day of rest (no change in my prednisone taper schedule). I continue to have aches & minor pains, but when I think back to the original attack in Nov. 2023, I feel so blessed where I am in the battle against PMR. My CRP & ESR numbers have been normal since July, but by no means did that mean I was pain or ache free. I, like most, have had the love/hate relationship with Prednisone (mostly hate) but hopefully in a month it will be in my past. Again, I do continue to have 'manageable' aches and some minor pains, but what I feel has been the turning point is that over the past three weeks my 'grunting, groaning, and yelling ouch' factor has just about disappeared. This Mayo Clinic group has been a blessing to me! The times I was confused or didn't understand what I was experiencing, I found it so comforting (and educational) to read through these threads and get insights from folks who were living the nightmare along with me. To all I wish you the best and hopefully you can enjoy this holiday season.

It’s frustrating and depressing at times. I’m really grateful for this forum❤️

Thank you so much for sharing. It’s so helpful knowing your not alone in this.