Reply by doctor in daily paper about PMR ....

Yes, I agree...wish there was a protocol that Rheumies ALL followed, but that would be too easy, but the difference we read on the posts is staggering sometimes...no wonder we all get confused.  Thank heavens for those in the know on here...like yourself and Eileen, to which we are all grateful!

I suppose to give the rheumies the benefit of the doubt, if they ALL followed specific guidelines to the letter it still wouldn't work for some of us, as we are all different, have different levels of inflammation and will respond differently to both the illness and the treatment.

I've approved the discussion which is here

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/article-on-pmr-in-today-s-daily-mail-510934

Let me know if you want me to delete this discussion so we don't have 2 threads. I didn't see this one until after approving the other one.

Alan

I did wonder whether they had just plucked a dosage from mid air haha! I did really struggle at 15 mg from prednisolone side effects so dropped to 10 mg and fared much better, but as you say we are all different in our make up, shape and size and muscle mass etc. I suspect all of these variables could influence the dose required by an individual and agree more research would be helpful

Noninoni, that's interesting.  I wonder if this kind of data is being collected?  

In my case I think it was a bit of both really, when my Gp suspected I had PMR  I was reluctant to start Prednisolone and asked him to check my hormone levels as I was menopausal and aware that people with low oestrogen levels suffered similar symptoms. They did come back low so I started 3months of HRT interestingly enough hip pain did improve but shoulder pain did not and by now was showing signs of frozen shoulder.i had an injection into my shoulder and experienced relief in all pains within 3days which lasted for 8 weeks. Pains returned again and inflammatory markers were raised so started  15 mg oral prednisolone ..experienced falls and pixilated vision so dropped to 10 mg after 2days for 10 days and was asked to drop in 2.5 mg increments each month until I reached 5 mg This actually worked well for me and I would have happily stayed at 5mg for a year (given the nature of this condition!) however my Gp encouraged me to continue tapering at a slower rate. I did get to zero but pains started creeping back so increased prednisolone at 1mg intervals until I was comfortable...2mg seemed my magic dose ..3mg saw the return of headaches etc. All in all this was an extremely rapid taper as I have found out from this site not suitable for many and I'm sure my journey is not over by a long shot however, it has taught me how my body reacts to the condition and prednisolone and to have the confidence to adjust my dose accordingly.My taper to date (1.5 mg ) has taken 10 months much of that at low doses however my next challenge is getting my head round the osteoporosis found on my Dexa scan.