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How to address PMR pain while decreasing prednisone

Posted by barbararene @barbararene, Feb 13, 2017

I have been diagnosed w poly myalgia rheumatica (pmr). Am taking 5 mg of predisone, was taking 10mg.
Every time I go on a low dose, symptoms come back. I can't take pain meds, but do drink wine to ease pain, although I'm told no alcohol w prednisone. Anything you can share as far as info

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kimmgb | @kimmgb | 13 hours ago
In reply to @janielou56 "Dear @alissahe Have you and your Dr. thought about combining your prednisone with Low dose Naltrexone..." + (show)
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Dear @alissahe
Have you and your Dr. thought about combining your prednisone with Low dose Naltrexone (LDN)4.5
I believe that it's been helpful for me.
I was diagnosed with PMR eight months ago.
Was put on 20 mg of prednisone by my GP. The prednisone started taking my pain away within days to a tolerable level But I struggled with lots of side effects.
Two weeks after that my functional doctor included LDN.
After reading some articles about
Splitting prednisone I got permission to take most of my prednisone in the morning with my breakfast. Then 1 mg of prednisone at night before I went to sleep so that I could wake up without much pain and get a good sleep.
Today I'm down to 6mg of pred 5+ LDN in the am and 1 at night bf bed.
My functional doctor also said that if I had pain anywhere I could take Traumeel ( an analgesic) as needed. So far the journey has been tolerable and my moon face has slowly disappeared.
Good luck to you in your PMR journey.

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@janielou56
Look into taking a biologic drug. I am on Actemera and was able to reduce my prednisone to 1mg. There are other drugs as well. Good luck with reducing. The key is very small reductions, 1/2 a mg every 4-6 weeks. Worked for mev

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savitchcrew | @savitchcrew | 6 hours ago
In reply to @johnbishop "Hello @aeckman, Welcome to Connect. Sorry to hear you have joined our PMR club but happy..." + (show)
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Hello @aeckman, Welcome to Connect. Sorry to hear you have joined our PMR club but happy to see that you have joined Connect. You are not alone with your PMR/prednisone struggles. Thanks to @dadcue, here are a few discussions with videos to help you learn a little more about PMR and hopefully get you on your road to tapering off of prednisone.
-- History of PMR -- Interesting video presentation from past to present.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/history-of-pmr-interesting-video-presentation-from-past-to-present/
-- Comprehensive Overview Of PMR
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/comprehensive-overview-of-pmr/
-- Video: Steroids and PMR - International Panel of Doctors
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/video-steroids-and-pmr-international-panel-of-doctors/
You mentioned having your questions passed off when talking with your doctor. Have you thought about meeting with a rheumatologist?

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@johnbishop As you will hear, PMR affects people differently, we respond differently to medication and our pain can be different - one size does not fit all. So there aren’t a lot of concrete answers to anything. I too wanted to get at the root cause and snuff it out. Still looking after two years! Still asking my Rheumatologist lots of questions - many which get answered with “We just don’t know.” And still trying different drug regimes (as well as diet, exercise when I can) to calm the PMR storm. Good luck!

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burtnlaurie | @burtnlaurie | 17 minutes ago

Dr. Megan prednisone

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