New..diagnosed Feb 2008 | Arthritis Information
I ran across this WONDERFUL forum and wanted to say..hello to my fellow sufferers..
As of yet have met NO ONE that has had this..and found myself not able to get out of bed in February, totally stiff totally in pain and when all the blood work was taken, it was pmr...overnight my life has taken a change...now i am in ARTHRITIC water Arobics..(actually feels good!) and went from a 53 year old very active woman..to a slower, tireder woman..on pred..(no more stiffness) but very general malaise..
anyhow..SO GLAD TO FIND YOU ALL..
I find myself reading your forum when i get blue (and with Pred it is often)
that is me..cathi..and wanted to say hello
Welcome Cathi.....I find myself at this forum everyday, I too have not met anyone else with PMR, it helps to be able to know that there are others who understand. I was diagnosed in july '07 after a couple of months of being told to rest!!! I am a very active 55. I was put on 20mg of pred with miraculous results....felt like I was 17 for the rest of the summer. I was lucky and avoided many of the side effects. As I have been tapering I get achey and stiff, depending on the day, but it seems to move around. My upper arms are always stiff but at times it can be my feet, hands, bottom, hips, neck, etc. I have tapered down to 4.5 and my Rheum has somewhat left it up to me from 5 down. So far so good. As bad as this PMR can be however, I feel ,with the pred., it is the lesser of many other things out there. Anxiously waiting the arrival of spring here in NH......Take care.Hi Cathi
Welcome to the forum that I think is a very good help when you have questions. However, I don´t think you should blame pred for the way you feel. Without pred, you would probably have been as stiff as you were in the beginning and also have had considerable pain. I am a man of 70 and five years ago, when I went to the 50th jubilee of my high school graduation as an exchange student in Glencoe, MN I felt like 17 for some weeks (like gail55 says). I started on 20 mg in June 2005 and now I am on 1.25 mg a day. I tried to taper too fast, and it took me a year to come below 5 mg! My advice is to take it easy and think of how you feel in your body rather than having an urge to get off pred.
Good luck
Ragnar
Cathi welcome!
I (like you) was quite active when this pmr thing happened. Initially I was told (by a physician's assistant) that it was "just old age" and sent me to physical therapy (which by the way didn't work). Prednisone was the one thing that did! I am now down to 3 mg (some symptoms remain) and hope to move lower soon.
Good luck and hope you do well
Jeff
Welcome Cathi
I'm really glad you found us.
When I started (dec 06), the first 6 weeks were a bit of a fog, while I got down from an initial high dose (40mg) to a much lower dose. I know some people say the high dose makes them hyperactive, but it didn't have that effect on me. Difficult to know what was the pred and what was the pmr, as 2 of the symptoms of pmr are tiredness and depression! But by the time I got down to about 12.5mg (and this will vary from person to person) I felt fine - no stiffness and the fog had gone.
I agree with Ragnar - take it slow and steady - I'm down to 1.5mg now and feeling fine.
Margaret
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