PMR and osteoarthritis | Arthritis Information

 

Freesia, I think it was you that was asking about this subject.  My computer was messed up at that time and I was unable to log into the forum.  I too have osteoarthritis throughout my spine (all three sections) and my knees.  The arthritis causes alot of pain in my lower back along with my neck and shoulder areas.

Hi russelcat, russellcat,
I've got osteo in my spine, a little stenosis,and a bulging disc, too. So my OA situation is somewhat similar to yours. I don't have the specifics because I seem to have misplaced the report from the x-rays and CT-scan.  I was diagnosed with PMR  Jan. 22, 2010--I'll never forget that date! Right now I'm down to 5.5 mg prednisone but it's not enough to quell the back and neck pains like the higher doses did.  Actually I should say, around 6 p.m. I do feel a certain amount of relief from everything, including PMR, but it takes that long for this amount of pred to kick in. 

I never had the flu-like symptoms you had, but I had other strange symptoms which I feel were building up to PMR all during 2009, but they have gone away. They were things like electrical shocks running down my back during the night when I tried to move,almost paralyzing me; then during the day my legs felt too heavy to lift. Less than an hour after awaking in the morning, I would have to lie down again in an attempt to help the feeling of pressure on my legs but even that didn't help.

My rheumy actually has not offered me anything for relief from the OA pains. All she has said is that I need to remember that prednisone is not the treatment for OA, so I need to be aware while I'm tapering that some of my pains are not related to PMR. I haven't taken anything for the OA !

I'm happy for you that you're already down to 4.5 mg and only had PMR for a year. That is great. This is my second attempt at tapering and I feel like I have to succeed this time, because the prednisone is wreaking havoc with my stomach, and the meds to combat that are also causing problems (malabsorption of iron leading to low hemoglobin).  Of course....I guess PMR is the boss and I may not succeed if it wants to stick around!  freesia2011-06-17 11:00:57

freesia, do you take Tylenol for the OA pain? That is what I use during the day.  The Tramadol I take that is supposed to be for the PMR pain, helps the OA too, but it does not last more than a few hours and I dont like taking a second one in the middle of the night.

Nan, baclofen is a muscle relaxer.  I only take 5mg (very low dose) 3xday.  Alot of my back pains feel muscle related but I had these issues before PMR.  I'd tried muscle relaxers before but they always made me too sleepy for daytime use.  After searching for a long time I finally tried baclofen and it is the one that doesn't knock me out.  Too bad we aren't all just exactly the same then there would be no searching, testing or try this and come back in 6 wks.  We'd all know what was wrong with us and how to fix it. Freesia, I did finally give in a go to a Pain Management doctor.  Just make sure the doctor is reputable and highly skilled.  They may suggest different procedures and you don't want an unskilled person placing needles around your spine.  They did help me and now the strongest thing I'm on is tramadol.Do I need a prescriptio for baclofen? I see my rheumy on the27th. It is with a prescription.  Also, just because a drug works for me doesn't mean it will be best for you.  My rheumy prescribed the baclofen for me after discussing it with him.  Not sure who thought I was a male but my cats name is Russell, hence Russellcat.  He is a 14yr old, 16# Tabby. Nanatjjj, I tried taking arthritis-strength Tylenol one day but it made me feel worse---I mean, it sort of helped with the pain, but I felt very strange. It was awhile ago so it's hard to describe how I felt, but just like it was taxing my innards somehow. I'm pretty sensitive to drugs. That's why I can't believe I've been on a drug like prednisone for so long--I even hated taking aspirin--but there's really no choice when you have pmr.

freesia
freesia2011-06-18 10:22:03

Hi freesia,

Hi Nanatjjj,
Yes, I took 2 arthritis strength Tylenol. Whew! That really zapped me.

It's hard to know what to take sometimes...how many pills. I'd heard that if you don't take the "therapeutic dose" it won't do any good...but I don't think that is always true. We all have different levels of sensitivity to drugs, it seems.

You do have to be careful with the Tylenol. It seems so benign, but it can damage your liver or kidneys--I forget which.

Take care.

freesia
I think it damages the liver for sure, maybe the kidneys too. Maybe you could try taking just one of the arthritis strength to take the edge off the pain. If I'm correct on the tylenol thing, the arthritis tylenol is delayed release over an 8hr period.  So whatever the strength is it is over an 8hr period. Hi Nanatjjj,
You're right, it's the liver that can be damaged by Tylenol. I even tried taking one regular Tylenol but that seemed too strong, too! Oh well.....

My Father's Day was quiet. My father died in 1998 and I don't have a husband or children.  I'm glad you got to go to a nice barbecue. I'm sorry to hear you haven't been sleeping well, though. Sleep is so important when you have PMR. I never did well on "sleep deficit" but it's even worse now if I have a bad night. Hope this improves for you. russellcat, it's amazing that you can tolerate so much Tylenol--for me that would be a lot anyway--but mainly I'm sorry you have pain which requires it.

I'll have to check the bottle and see if my Tylenol is time-released. That's usually a good thing...........okay I just checked and it's time-released (they call it "extended release") and each capsule is 650 mg. This is over-the-counter stuff.

I tried mtx for awhile but it just didn't seem to be doing anything for me. Is it helping you? You don't have RA, do you?

Thanks for your help. I hope you have a good day Hi russelcat/freesia,