Prednisone - if it's going to work, how long should it take?

I called my rheum about a flare that started Jan 23rd. I am still undiagnosed and I guess we're playing the elimination game. The only notable things my bloodwork showed was low vit D and one positive rheumatoid factor. No evidence in x-rays of any rheumatoid arthritis, no Lupus, no nothing else.
I have been on a vit D regimen since December.
I also started taking Lyrica which really seemed to help, until this current flare.

I am on day 6 of 10mg of prednisone. Today the pain is very bad, in my hands for the most part, but knees, elbows and arms are flaring up. The dexterity in my hands has gone to crap and I just feel over-all ill.

If the prednisone was going to work, do you think it would have had some effect by now?

Prednisone has never helped my fibro. It has helped my autoimmune issues by reducing the inflammation that causes joint pain caused by lupus or RA.

Did you have any noticeable swelling or red, warm joints before taking the prednisone? It will take my inflammation down fairly quickly.

Fibro is not an inflammatory illness and prednisone will do nothing to help fibro pain. If you do in fact have RA, the RA could benefit from the prednisone, but you will still feel fibro pain.

I am no longer on the prednisone but take MTX for the autoimmune issues. The dx process can be a lengthy one.

Hang in there and hope you find relief soon.

Hugs, Robin

I went ahead and called the doctor and left a message. The last three days, the pain has been worse than it has in a long time, and it's starting to spread; it's feeling a lot like it did when whatever-this-is started to present itself back in August.

I have no redness and nothing is swollen at all. The only symptom I have is symmetrical pain, predominately in my hands. When things are getting bad, my arms, elbows, knees, and ankles join the party. Today I had to go home from work early because all I could do was sit there with my hands in the heating pad, unable to work or do anything longer than five minutes at a time. Right now I'm learning how to use the diction software on my computer to reply to this.
A mic headset may be in my future.

If I thought I could afford the electric bill, instead of paying my car off my tax return would be going to a hot tub.

We could not tell it had an effect on our electric bill. Love my Hot Tub!

Yeah, like I said, I believe this prednisone trial was just an elimination experiment based on the positive RA Factor.
Whether or not the prednisone made it worse, I don't know. The pain was already ramping up when I called her last week and she decided we would try this.

Interesting about he electricity & hot tub. Our heater kills our electric bill, I just assumed the heating of the tub would cause an audible sucking sound from the power lines, lol.