Muscle pain and fatigue

[KyleB]

After 2 rounds of rituxen and I'm on 60 MG of predisone. I am waking up every night after 3 hours of sleep with muscle pain. It's bad enough that I need to have a bath as well as take some tylonel 3 just to try to get back to sleep. I seem to be alot weaker all day and experience some cramping and soreness all day. It's worst in legs but also shows up in upper body at times as well. Anyone else dealing with this ?

[Pete]

Hi Kyle,

You didn't say when you got your rtx, so I'm assuming it was very recently. Rtx takes a few weeks to take effect, so you may have a few more weeks before you feel better. That said, check with your doc about your symptoms as they are indicative of active disease.

[Birdie]

After 2 rounds of rituxen and I'm on 60 MG of predisone. I am waking up every night after 3 hours of sleep with muscle pain. It's bad enough that I need to have a bath as well as take some tylonel 3 just to try to get back to sleep. I seem to be alot weaker all day and experience some cramping and soreness all day. It's worst in legs but also shows up in upper body at times as well. Anyone else dealing with this ?

Short answer is yes, many people deal with it.

Higher dose of pred (20mg or more) causes me massive muscle cramps, took Lorzone for fast relief from cramps only. Less than 20 minutes and no muscle cramps for at least 12 hours. Muscle pain was far less once the cramps were stopped. I know of nothing to help with fatigue other than keeping a positive outlook. For now just hang in there, it will get better. And hey, your brain defogs as the prednisone decreases.

[Pete]

I forgot to add that I ate a banana every day and took a 100 mg potassium supplement daily to counteract the cramping. My doc was ok with the supplement. Now that I'm stable on 5 mg/day of pred, I've discontinued the supplement.

[mishb]

I cannot eat banana's or take potassium tablets because it is not good for the kidneys.
Apparently my stupid system creates too much of the stuff, by itself.

Quinine helps with the muscle cramps.

It does get a little easier Kyle as your pred starts to reduce. Keep up with the pain relief methods if it helps, and hang in there

[Pete]

I'd forgotten about quinine as relief for cramping. I drank tonic water (the tonic part of gin and tonic), but it has so much sugar (HFCS) that I'm reluctant to use it again. I may have to talk with my pharmacist about it.

[kaysee]

I too had bad muscle cramps - especially in the legs, ankles and toes. I started having them before my rtx treatments so I'm convinced it was from the high dose of pred. I had them again during pred tapers. I would get the cramps toward the end of each rtx treatment too. I started to take potassium but my tests showed that my potassium was high. It is dangerous to have high potassium so I would take it unless you know your potassium is low.

[Birdie]

I too had bad muscle cramps - especially in the legs, ankles and toes. I started having them before my rtx treatments so I'm convinced it was from the high dose of pred.

One word - Lorzone
OK, maybe two words - Amazing

It gets rid of prednicramps faster than Dominos can deliver a pizza.