Hi all once again, as i thought my inflammation levels are up from the blood test yesterday the Dr rang i think she said 23 and 18 so any advice on how much to up my dose from 4 and how long for i know its about finding an acceptable dose but i still want to get of the steroids eventually. I will be grateful for your comments
Hello Liz, I believe the normal range for ESR is between 2-25mm/h and for CRP it's 0-5mg/L.
i don't know which of the figures you've given applies to ESR or CRP but one of your results is high in relation to the CRP.
regards, tina
Hi Liz, I didn't know pred doses were even based on the ESR & CRP. Mine were always within the normal range inspite of severe stiffness and pain in the beginning. I'd say that if you are comfortable without pain and stiffness, why up your dose? Elinor
As Elijo says, I wouldn't up my dose if the pain hasn't gone up as well. I have bloods done but can never be bothered to see what they are. The Dr or Rheumy tell me they are normal whatever that means. My dosage is purely on how I feel not what my bloods are or what they tell me to be on.
Ron.
Amen! Good luck to all.
My doctor only treats the symptoms. She does send me for ESR, and it's now a bit lower than before, but she emphasizes that as long as I am feeling well I should not be concerned about the level.
I did say in a previous post(which some of you may not have read) one of the reasons i went to the Dr was because i was very stiff with a few other niggles and it had gone on for a while, my blood fortunatley for me are a way of telling if there is a problem and confirmed i needed to up my dose, ive had niggles before and stuck with it and they went but not this time.
Exactly. In my case niggles, or worse - I put up with niggles - would have been enough for my doctor to approve a dose increase. The last ten days or so my niggles have begun to decrease significantly and I'm now very slowly reducing my dose from 4 to 3.5. As my sed rate has never been especially low, although it seems to be slowly decreasing, I'd have been stuck on an unnecessarily high dose of pred for a long time had we gone by that measurement (she doesn't check CRP) plus the fact that I have niggles. But I should add that I've been almost obsessively proactive about improving my general health as much as I possibly can.