Hi everyone, I m wondering if anyone has been having head pains , flash like pains in my head upon getting up and when I m tired, and last three days, pain in the back of my head, low down when I lie down... I have CCA and PER. (Since Sept last year.. have got down to ten pres from sixty, but haven't felt too good last few days.. Also on seven two and a half mg Methotrexate tabs once a week... just been told now have glucoma and cataracts,so awaiting operation later this month... maybe I m just hitting a low patch, but feeling as if I m going backwards, and feeling a bit lost.. Any advice would help... thanks a lot x
Can you call your doctor today and tell him of the head pain since the drop to 10? He may want to up it in case it is GCA to protect eyesight. At least that is what they do with me but call him to get his/her advice don't up it unless you've been advised to. Good luck.
Thank you...i have had GCA since Sept last year....and despite some not so good side effects, have felt as I m coping, but these head pains have really set me back..
Mary, Better to be safe than sorry. With those head pains best to move on it. Hope you feel better soon.
I have PMR and GCA and I have had head pain and dizziness for about 3 days. I think it is because of some sinus infection, and the vast amount of pollen in the air at the moment. It has made my GCA flare. I had to up my pred from 20 to 25 and then to 30. Maybe your GCa is flaring at the moment. You could try to take 5 mg more for 3 days and then maybe go back to 10 again, or go down gradually.
I hope you feel better soon.
It does sound as if you may be having a bit of a flare - to have got to that low a pred dose from 60 last September is very fast and flares are quite common in the first 18 months. Do try to get hold of a doctor as soon as possible - and if it gets worse please make sure you find a doctor quickly, ED if necessary.
If my consultant had had her way, the drop would have been faster.. I wanted to do it slower.. had a bad flare up dropping from twelve and a half to ten, and stayed on eleven for three weeks, only dropped to ten 6 days ago.. consultant wanted me to go to eight, but i resisted, as flare up was dreadful, so went to ten... .. I will ring in Monday and ask for urgent appointment.. thanks for your valuable help x
Mary if a lot of doctors had their way we would all have been on zero dosage within days of starting on steroids!
I have hated every minute of being on steroids, but having lost a lot of sight with onset of CHA, and knowing it was the only thing that would help..I 've trod the path, hard tho its been at times, and then came PRM. , and after one horrible flare up I m insisting on a go slow method.... and this foru has helped me stay strong, so thank you..
Mary yes I agree you need to do the slow taper and probably by 1 mil not any more. Never fool around when it comes to the head pain as I too have the GCA.
All I can say is the Dr.s here in Fl that Ive been too, 4 Rhuematologists who claim they specialize and are so familiar with PMR & GCA are just nuts. Even when Ive brought them the written info available here online they refused to read it. They all wanted me off pred within a few weeks and claim it masks all and any pain, even when I said no it doesnt for everyone they made me feel crazy.
They claim its a drug that is over used and abused and made me feel like an addict. Here I am at 65 never having taken pred and telling them that it works and they tell me its in my mind. Im at my wits end and now counting on my general internist to help me.
This Dr wanted to try me on Celebrex but I refused to changed and he agreed to help me with the pred and told me to do what was working for me. But the specialists are so darn against the pred that Im not going back to them.
I'm absolutely gobsmacked that any doctor who claims they are familiar with GCA want you to stop pred quickly if there is a chance you have GCA!!!!!
I was offered celebrex before PMR diagnosis but I didn't fill the prescription - wondered why this medication is even on the market! And the doctors prefer this to pred? It is possible, given enough time, and perhaps other actions to promote health, to reduce pred dose to something very low and virtually side effect free and still experience good relief. A drug like celebrex can't work like that even if it was effective against PMR pain.
Have you heard the latest claims that even a week of ibuprofen can increase your risk of a heart attack?
"Common painkillers such as ibuprofen can double the risk of suffering a heart attack, a study has found.
Research published in the British Medical Journal analysed results of 138 trials involving 140,000 patients over several years. It found that ibuprofen and diclofenac, two non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), could cause attacks when taken in high doses.
The drugs have been previously noted for increasing heart attack risk but experts say that this is the biggest and most definitive study of its kind.
Vioxx, which is part of a group of anti-inflammatories known as COX-2 inhibitors, was banned in 2004 after it was shown that patients on the drug were more than twice as likely to have heart attacks as those not taking it."
I'm quite happy taking my chances with pred thus far - especially when I didn't get much in the way of relief from ibuprofen for PMR!
I don't remember now what it was but several years ago I sent my daughter a warning about ibuprofen as I knew it was her preferred analgesic, and she said she would stop using it. I think it was because of our family history, stroke risk.