Weaning off of prednisone & pain management

Posted by joan7 @joan7, Feb 25 9:11am

Last Tuesday, I went down from 7.5 mg of Prednisone down to 5 mgs. For the past 4 days my pain level has been a 12 out of 10. I could barely walk. Although I hate to take Advil, Motrin, etc., I took 2 Advil Gels and within 1 hour I felt better (not perfect, but a lot better). Hours later the pain started to come back but was maybe a 6 out of 10. The next morning I was crippled by the pain all over again. I forced myself to get moving, but could barely get around. Drank a lot of ice water, and before I went to bed, I raised the head part of my bed up and fell asleep. Woke up this morning with very little pain. Has anyone experienced any type of correlation between raising your head up vs laying flat, and the amount of pain you will experience? Had that slight change made that much of a difference in your pain level? I have found that drinking almost all my drinks with a lot of ice, definitely helps with internal inflammation. What are your experiences or thoughts regarding this matter? Thanks!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

@besmith57

I was diagnosed with PMR a month ago after excruciating pain to the point I had to get my walker back out from my lumbar fusion. I will be weaning off from 20mg to 15mg on Wednesday. I know I have to get off prednisone because of my osteoporosis. I'm so worried that my symptoms will come back. I also now have extremely dry eyes. My ophthalmologist told me I'm tearing off a layer of my retina when I wake up. I'm using eye drops and lubricants.to help, but my eyes still hurt, and my vision is sometimes very blurry. I guess I'm asking what I should expect while weaning. TIA

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@besmith57, I added your question about weaning off prednisone with PMR to this discussion:
- Weaning off of prednisone & pain management https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/weaning-off-of-prednisone-pain-management/

Dealing with dry eyes is not fun. There are many discussions dealing with dry eyes. You may wish to start here:
- How do you deal with dry eyes?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/dry-eyes-1/

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@colleenyoung

@besmith57, I added your question about weaning off prednisone with PMR to this discussion:
- Weaning off of prednisone & pain management https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/weaning-off-of-prednisone-pain-management/

Dealing with dry eyes is not fun. There are many discussions dealing with dry eyes. You may wish to start here:
- How do you deal with dry eyes?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/dry-eyes-1/

Jump to this post

Thank you for all the PMR links. I'm at 7.5 mg of prednisone now but I'm considering going back to 10mg tomorrow. My pain level today is terrible. This is twice in less than a week where the pain kept me from doing anything. I had to go to the ER for painful, teary eyes a month ago. I saw an ophthalmologist who said I was basically tearing a layer off my retina. I now use drops and ointment at night. I wish Kevzera worked faster. I'm sure my osteopenia is gone now with the prednisone use. I did 2 years of injections of Tylmos (very expensive) to make my bones better which the Tymlos did. Guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Thanks, again!

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