with predisone therapy as an booster anti-inflammatory?
I'm 7 months into PMR with a suspected GCA because of scalp pain. We held off on the biopsy because it would require shaving the side of my head. My doctor shows compassion for the vanity part us women still try to exhibit, inspite of the pain and fatigue.
My Medrol was increased to 24mg from 8 which did alleviate the pain about 50% in my scalp area. The added boost also did wonders for the fatigue and heavy feeling in my legs when I walk for too long or go upstairs.
MY BP is going up, so we adjusted my BP meds to compensate. Skin is black and blue where I bump or get blood tests done. So he is now starting to reduce the doseage of Medrol by 2 mg every two weeks for the next three weeks.
I have joint aches in my ankles and hands and wrists, which actually manifested after the steroid increase. Leg aches, the usual extra pains you don't need, but demand attention, anyway.
He is "hoping" that the Voltaren will make the transition easier in regards to the inflammation process of this disease. As soon as I can tolerate the lower dose of Medrol, he would then add one of the more common drugs used for lower dose Medrol therapy.
The Ultram helps with the discomfort and I keep practicing my rowing strokes. Really a struggle to find a comfortable zone. Oddly, I have lost weight on Medrol, not gained.
The risks of increasing the Medrol to a highter dose to see if it wipes out the GCA symptoms is not an option at this point. I hope this works, and I don't have to drag myself around like I was trying to do at the 8 mg dose.
Donna, NY
Donna, I am sorry you are having such a bad time. I dont have anthing to
Hi Donna!
I have used a 50 mg Voltaren tablet per day for a week and have noticed no side efects. I just checked interaction with prednisone on the website that Bob informed about. See my post above. According to the interaction test there is no problem. I still have pain but I think I should not use Voltaren more than about 5 days according to informatrion abnout the tablets.
Ragnar
I'm prescribed three tablets a day. Second dose this morning, seems to be helping. I have to be monitored by blood tests, but the Medrol is not able to kick out the inflammation that is going on with my body.
He called Voltaren "Poor man's steroids". It goes after the inflammation in conjunction with the steroids. I hope this gets the SR down. It just keeps going back up, and everything aches. Never goes away.
He told me Voltaren has less side effects that Medrol, and can be used long term if bloods are monitored for liver and kidney functions. I'd hang garlic around my neck at this point, if it would take this ache away.
Now, to work on positive thoughts, just some minor aches will remain.
Donna, NY
Donna...there is NO need to shave part of your head. I had it done and the doc did NOT do any shaving. Maybe you should find a doc that can? By the way my biopsy was negative for CGA. My scalp pain was there for aslong as I was on prednisone. I know 100 percent it was the pred. Scalppain went away about 1 months after I stopped. 3 years later when PMR came back I started again on pred and bang 1 week later the scalp pain was back. I stopped again and the pain went away again!
It is scary though ...chicken or egg?
Sadly, the scalp pain improved when the Medrol dosage was increased. The Voltaren is also kicking in and helping the other joint pains that are not supposed to be asssociated with PMR. Now, to see if the blood tests in two weeks show a drop in SR. and no liver or kidney issues.
Something inflammatory definately going on besides the PMR. Tests 7 months ago were negative for all the obvious diseases. Just getting some relief from the aches is helping. I felt like a rubber band ready to snap because no matter what I did, I could not find relief.
I'll start walking again in a few days to see how I do with stressor's on my back and legs. I'm starting to taper down on the Medrol, by 2 mg for the next two weeks on the evening dose. Then to continue down by that rate for another 6 weeks. The rest of the taper has to be slow. I can't take another round like the last one.
We are looking for the Voltaren to combine with the Medrol and ease the inflammation. Using that hope it works attitude.
I hope that I don't have to have the biopsy, but figure that they could do it without too many strands of hair lost. The new liquid stitches work wonders, too.
Donna, NY
Hi Donna
On former postings I have described hoiw I had my biopsy a day before flying from Sweden to the Twin Cities for my 50th class reunion. The doctor just shaved a small part of the hair and I had a white poad to cover the stitches for 10 days or so. When having the class reunion, my wife helped me to cover the white pad across my scar with surgical tape in skin colour. As we were trevelling in California in a rented car, my wife helped me to take out the stitches in a motel by using ths small scissors of her Swiss army knife. She dipped it in gin from one of those small miniature bottles we got on the Atlantic flight in order to sterilize it. By that time, nothing really showed as the hair had grown somewhat and now it cannot be seen thru my hair. It is so important that you get the final diagose, I think, so take it and ask them to shave as little as possible. You won´t regret it!
Ragnar