PMR pain and numbness

This needs to be checked out with your doctor, but I can think of two possible things. My PMR onset involved pain in wrists and hands as well as the more usual places. The pain in wrists and the base of thumbs was the last to go after starting on prednisone. And a slight ache/pain in the base of thumbs near the wrist often comes back temporarily after each reduction.

I had severe finger and hand numbing fairly often last year and still sometimes now, with the hands turning dark blue when they went numb. It was Raynaud's Syndrome, often linked to auto-immune conditions, with or without prednisone. Not much can be done about it, but a heat bag can bring back blood circulation.

The other thing is peripheral neuropathy - it can be related to auto-immune conditions too. It can also be caused by excessive amounts of vitamin B6 in the body. In my case, a blood test showed very high levels of B6 and a warning in the pathology results that those kind of levels have a high risk of causing peripheral neuropathy. The culprit in my case was magnesium tablets I'd been taking daily for years that also contained high amounts of B6. I switched magnesium brands to one that didn't contain B6 and my blood results now show normal vitamin B6 levels.

And it could be something else. Ask your doctor what they think is going on. There are likely to be a few possible causes.

I do not have wrist pain but do have tingling fingers that come and go throughout the day.

I had PMR a year ago with pain in both shoulders, hips and hands, used Prednisone for about 8 months. All pain went away and now for the last 2 months I am getting hand pain, numbness and tingling in both hands and wrist. Is it possible the PMR is back? Doctor appointment tomorrow.

My hands and fingers have started to go numb too. In the past when I feel a flare-up coming, my lower legs get stiff and feel like my legs are very heavy and my upper arms hurt but now my hands keep getting stiff and numb and tingly like they’re falling asleep and my lower arms ache.

Have you had x-rays, scans, MRI's or a scintigraphy done? I presume you will have had some of them done.

I've had them all and over the years more and more arthritis, tendon, nerve and ligament damage seem to be working their way into all my large and small joints. From, originally, the one shoulder to then the other with nerve impingement and rotator cuff damage and a fully torn tendon in the right shoulder. From there over time my elbows, wrists, fingers (especially the base of both thumbs caused by arthritis in both of them), knees, feet and toes are all affected. I've had multiple cortisone injections in my knees, shoulders and wrists and plasma injections in my knees. If I wasn't in my early seventies I'd probably have had knee replacements by now but I'm told, at my age, the recovery process would too long. The same reason for not doing surgery on my shoulders. They say they can't replace everything so physio, meds and braces where necessary are my only options.

So, yes, I too have had numbness, tingling fingers and toes. If I keep my hands in an elevated position, like reading a book, they start to tingle and go numb. A few months ago, in bed, I was having several nights where my whole right hand was completely dead from below my wrist to the ends of my fingers. I started having to use wrist braces on both wrists and even braces on my fingers. I tore a tendon once in one of my fingers just tearing open a plastic bag. Every innocuous thing I did seemed to damage me in some way.

When all this came to a crescendo of awful, full-body, pain and damage and sudden swelling in both wrists and both feet is about the time I was diagnosed with PMR thanks to a set of blood tests that showed CRP at 178 and a load of other blood markers that were way too high or too low. I'd never had blood markers like that before and I've had a lot of blood tests.

After starting on prednisone at 6mg, 90% of the swelling and pain went away. My knees were less painful and so were wrists, fingers and thumbs. Now I'm down to 8mg of prednisone those pains are retuning. The numbness and tingling remains because of nerve impingement.

Apart from xrays, MRI's and scars, the level of inflammation in many parts of my body only really opened my eyes to my problems once I had a full-body scintigraphy done. I've been saying for years that I have odd feelings and discomfort everywhere in my body but was told it was in my imagination. The scintigraphy proved my point. But arthritis and tendon damage has played a big part in my numbness and tingling (neuropathy).

"Every innocuous thing I did seemed to damage me in some way."
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The tendon connecting my thumb ruptured. The hand surgeon asked me questions about what kind of "traumatic injury" I had that might have caused the tendon to rupture like it did. I said no, nothing that I recall. All I did was push a button with my thumb.