I habe had PMR for about 16 months. I am 6 days into a taper...going from 9 mg to 8 mg. last night had new soreness in both shoulders that woke me up. Too soon to taper? Also, does the fatigue...the need for a nap...never end? Thank you for all the support!
What dose did you start on? If you are experiencing renewed pain I'd postpone any tapering until your soreness settles down.
I'm afraid tiredness is one very annoying thing with PMR and Pred. I've had PMR for over 3 1/2 years and I STILL get tired!!!
Hi Kathy,
Are you doing an "overnight" taper or one of the slow reduction plans? Once I got down to single figures I started using the slow plan! Kinder to the body, and you. I also reduce by 0.5mg at a time, this is more in line with the "not more than 10% reduction" mantra.
Been on Pred for 3.5 yrs and down from 80 to 4mg, and still get fatigue! All part and parcel of it I'm afraid!
Kathy, like everyone elses reply, fatigue is a real pain. When I was on the high doses I was fine, I got down to 8.5 and I started to experience fatigue, only slightly but nevertheless it is really annoying. I am now down to 7.5 and I still on the odd day suffer from fatigue.
As sue has asked what is your tapering regime. You really need to be using the dead slow and almost stop regime and only reduce by.5 at below 10mgs.
You may be suffering from withdrawel. Withdrawel is when your body gets the hump when you deny it of preds even when it doesn't need it. The symptoms are the same as a flare but over the week the pain and/or stiffness reduces when your body finally accepts the new dose of pred. However, with a flare, the symptoms increase over the week. You may have to wait a couple of days to decide if you're suffering a flare or withdrawel. Regards tina
I am doing Lodger's slow taper and was very successful with it until I got to 6 mg...had a flare. Went back to 10 mg for 6 weeks...working my way down, was hoping I could go smoothly back to 7 mg and then taper by .5.
i am now thinking I will do the .5 taper going forward. Thank you for your replies!
Tina, when you say "hump" you don't mean the Prednisone hump on the back cervical spine? That painful ugly thing that went away at about 10-12mg I think. Though pain came back, but no hump.
Or is it another meaning?
Morning layne, sorry, now I know you're not English! We have an expression here - when something or someone annoys us a lot, it or they give us the "hump". Don't know what the hump means in this case but that's the expression.
now I'm going to use this expression, for the very first time too, LOL!!!! Because I am doing so!!! Regards, tina
Hi tina,
think the "hump" refers to the camel, which is renowned as having a bad temper,so to have the hump is when a person is angry or disgruntled!
Thanks for that Sue, you learn something new everyday! Regards, tina
Hmmm, seriously, a physical, painful hump or bump on back on cerivcal spine. Between shoulder blades. About size of Palm of hand but swelled up Another friend on mine who took Prednisone for another condition had it too,
I was scared when I had it and doctors didn't care.
Hi layne, The hump is a very common side effect of preds. As you lower the dose the hump begins to disappear. My hump is higher, just below the nape of my neck but it us totally painless. Regards, tina