i. reduced to 12.5 from 15mg and been okay . I went. shopping , dont carry much as i have shopping trolley, i bent down to pick carrier bag up and i got pain in shoulder for the first time in weeks, now I am thinking is it the pain from pmr or just. an ordinary pain, i suppose i shall have to wait and see. Ciuld yiu tell me if anyone had gritty eyes from Steroids ? Thank you
Hi Mary I had the same problem when reducing from 12.5 - 11 - Shoulder pain. I tried paracetemol and had complete relief so I figured it wasn't the PMR but an old problem as I had a frozen shoulder about 3 years ago and have ocassional problems of pain from time to time in that same shoulder. Hope yours is as easily fixed.
Sounds more like damage to the shoulder from an awkward movement - you have to remember that pred doesn't do tendons a lot of good and they are delicate from the PMR too. My husband is always hurting his shoulder from asking it to do movements that are unfair! Don't blame PMR for everything even if it does cause a lot of trouble ;-)
The gritty eyes can be part of the autoimmune disorder that is causing the PMR and it also causes dry eye syndrome. Ask your doctor if you can try some artificial tears drops or gel on prescription. I use a liposome spray - quite expensive but very good but I don't think it comes on prescription. I wrote a post about it recently somewhere else - I think it was the one from Optrex that came out best in a clinical trial.
Yes, I agree Eileen that Prednisolone doesn't do much good for tendon problems. I had a nasty accident many years ago and damaged my knee. After many different scans and XRays I was told it was tendon damage and I had two operations. The knee is now as good as they can get it but I still get continual slight discomfort and tightness. I have learned to live with it. I did hope that when I started to take the Prednisolone for PMR that it would help my knee, unfortunately it hasn't.
For dry eyes I take 'Viscotears Gel'. I find I get much better relief with this gel than I do with the watery drops. It is a very light gel and you can use it often. It comes in small tubes, handy to carry around all the time, and it also comes in single use vials that do not contain preservatives, for anyone who is sensitive to preservatives. It is available in England on prescription.
Some of this advice is totally inappropriate for a patient with PMR on long term steroids. Whilst it is true that shoulder problems can derive from long term treatment with steroids, none of the antiinflammatory drugs mentioned here should be taken together with corticosteroids and physical therapy is also a problem in PMR - it should only ever be undertaken by a physiotherapist who is thoroughly familiar with the problems associated with PMR as many therapies may make the PMR problems worse.