maybe a silly question - when my leg swelled up Doctor suggested a couple of days of 25mg pred then back to 6mg. Not long enough at higher dose for side effects or need to re-taper. Occasionally I do things which aggravate muscles so I relax for a few days. Has anyone tried very short term increase in dose to preempt any effects from increased activity?
Not a recommendation. Just wondering.
Julian, it's one thing to increase the steroids for a few days around a stressful situation such as surgery or a virus such as flu, or when we are experiencing increasing inflammation due to a flare (preferably under medical guidance), but quite another to start self-medicating/yo-yoing the doses willy-nilly to counteract over-working our muscles. Our muscles are intolerant of over-use with PMR so far better not to knowingly aggravate them in the first place. Doing so could lead to a longer journey than necessary with PMR and a higher cumulative dose overall.
Once you start yoyoing the dose you are likely to have increasing difficulty getting back to where you were before. And the discomfort you are talking about is simply sore muscles due to physical abuse (for want of a better description) of the same sort you get during athletic training. In PMR your muscles are less able to repair the tiny tears in the muscle fibres that is what happens in training so it last longer before it doesn't hurt. You wouldn't turn to pred as a runner would you?
It is true though that anyone who needs to work while suffering with PMR is likely to need a higher dose than if they weren't working. Which I suppose is the same thing. Yoyoing the dose isn't a good idea though.
I have done this when a very big job came up and I had to travel abroad for it... had I not done I could have lost a refular client and been in financial trouble causing me to have to either move or change my whole way of life. Had to balance which would be the most stressful... Thank goodness for Pred!