following a flare up and increasing from 7.5 to 12.5 beginning to lower dose slowly....I notice that I feel better in the afternoon and my aches and pains diminished. I wonder if splitting the dose would make the mornings easier. Any advice on this please.
You feel better in the afternoon because the dose is working on the new lot of inflammation which was set in motion in the very early morning, about 4.30am. The sooner after that you take your pred the less it has to do and the sooner the effect is felt. Afternoon seems quite late - what time do you take your dose and is it prednisone or prednisolone? Do you have any return of pains before bed? Have you tried taking a single dose immediately before bed?
Tisser, I had a bad flare, went to 30 mg, stabilize. As I started to taper, split my dosage, 20 to 25% at bedtime, 75 to 80 % after breakfast. This has worked good for me, now on 11 mg tapering to 10 mg. I will continue to split my dosage as long as it is practically.
Good luck on your journey, think positive and try to smile. Smiling :-)
Have been on 30mg for about 3 weeks and still alot of pain in the morning mostly in shoulders and arms. Diagnosed about 4 weeks ago and started with 20 mg with no relief so was raised to 30. Take the pred between 5-5:30am with some relief around 1 pm or so. Is this ever going to get better or am I just being impatient? Trying not to increase due to not much in the way of side effects and next appt with rhumy until end of Jan.
Are you also resting and avoiding activities that make the pain worse? Pred is not the whole of the story - you have to do your bit too. Just because you feel a bit better does not mean you can go back to normal activities. After all these years, if I do the wrong activities I have a lot of pain.
You do sound as if you might benefit from splitting your dose. That is taking a long time to kick in - where are you? In the UK and on prednisolone or the US and prednisone?
Morning Eileen, Can you remind me again the difference between Prednisone and prednisolone. My 1mgm tabs are prednisolone and the 5 MGM's are Prednisone. I therefore take 2 x 5mgm tabs and 3.5 x 1 MGM tabs. Thanks. Kath
Are you sure? What a strange mixture!
Prednisone is a precursor to prednisolone which is the active form of the drug: you take prednisone and it must be processed by the liver to form prednisolone before it can work. So effectively prednisolone works faster than prednisone. There is maybe an hour or so difference - prednislone takes an hour or so, prednisone over 2 hours. But for someeople both take longer.
Rats - people.....
Yes, definitely sure. I checked the bottles and the scripts. I am seeing the GP tomorrow so will discuss it then. Thank you.
In the US on prednisone. I just turned 65 and still work full time and try to run a household. Luckily my husband has been good about helping with the housework.
Hi carlene, I had to be 30 mg for about 6 weeks to get stable and PMR pain free. After tapering to 25 mg I stayed splitting my doses, 75 to 80% in morning after breakfast, 20 to 25% at bedtime. Everyone and every case is different, but has worked for me. Good luck on your PMR journey. Try to be positive and smile. Smiling 🙂
Hi Eileen I take my prednisolone after breakfast about 08.30 after we walk our little dog.....morning walk just a quick half hour, I admit on occasion my husband does the early walk if I’m not up to it.......I know what you are thinking rest...the up side is my dog makes me happy. At the moment the pain is much reduced and I make sure I do have a rest period. Thanks for your input.
No, I'm not thinking "rest" - I'm thinking "try taking it earlier".
Many people take their pred about 6am or even earlier and then settle down for another couple of hours in bed by which time the pred is starting to work and also has less to do as the inflammation is less established. That might well make your morning walk possible more often and also more comfortable as well as allowing it to achieve even more: gentle exercise will help the stiffness on its own. In the 5 years I had PMR with no pred I did an aquafit class every day Monday to Friday. The earlier in the morning it happend, the better day I had. It didn't make much difference to the pain but then, without pred, nothing does.
You have answered the question - if you have to work, you will undoubtedly need more pred and won't get as good a result as the person who isn't working. Does your husband also work? I wonder why women are conditioned to feel our husbands have been "good" when they help with household tasks?
Much to my disgust my husband doesn't see why he should help with household tasks - although, to be fair, he does do the finances. But then, I could sit in front of a computer to do something (I do after all) whereas using a vacuum cleaner leaves me in pain for days, both back and hands. His mother was very Victorian, told me once I should be standing at the door with his slippers when he got in "because he'd been working". A point I did dispute since I had also worked full time all week and while he had been in his lab writing up his PhD thesis I had done the week's washing, cooked and cleaned the house as well as doing the shopping.
I've posted about my xmas present - a Roomba. Magic!!!!!! I can vacuum the floor without pain 
Thanks for the info. It is a comfort to know that I am not alone in this journey. Just so frustrating that there is so much I want to do but can't and I am not used to this.
We both work full time jobs. He would usually take care of the trash, yardwork, etc and I would do the laundry, dishes, etc. Seems like now he is doing pretty much all for now however I am able to take care of the finances. Guess I just need to b patient but this is just all so new to me
Luckily we have a 2nd floor appartment with a balcony - the Hausmeister does the small amount of yardwork - and I do the trash (all 20 litres of it per 8 weeks - this is a major recycling household!) and I have a dishwasher thank goodness!
Yes - we often say that if you don't learn anything else with PMR you will learn patience. It will get better - and it would get better quicker if you were able to take some sick leave. I do relaise that in the USA that is often not an option. But do try to cut the non-essentials as much as you can. And with PMR the list of non-essentials does tend to grow over time! You learn that things you thought were important aren't so critical...
Oh no - definitely not alone as you will discover if you stay around us for long! We all had the same experience but you do learn to prioritise things and get the most out of your limited energy and strength. I was lucky, I worked freelance as a translator - from home so no commuting and no heavy stuff. Just had to get from the bed to the computer desk. It still wasn't easy. Now I'm past retirement age and after 14 years of PMR have got it down to a fair art so it doesn't stop me doing much, just differently. Few people have it this long - but it does tend to be longer than the 2 years that many doctors imagine.
Thanks for the support and information. I am so glad to have found this group!!
carlene, this forum has been by far the best source of information on PMR, I that had. Good luck, try to think positive and smile. ☺