A Cautionary Tale about taking high levels of Prednisone

Hi, I've been to this forum many times over a few years. I guess it would be about four years ago I was diagnosed by a rheumatologist as having PMR. The dose Dr. P gave me was 20mg and I instantly felt better. Oh, my goodness, I could walk without pain! I felt almost like I was 30 again instead of 60. The good sort of faded a little, but I was still much better, and I could lower the dose down to 13mg. But everything went smash when I got pneumonia. My blood counts went up and I felt worse again. My Dr. P. died meanwhile and now I have Dr. H, who raised my dose to 30. So as I went along these years, I've tried so hard to cut down on the dose, but the pain returns to me soon after I try to go gradually down. I take 25 now.

So, recently, my pain has been so bad that all three of my doctors (rheum.,general, and pain) are putting me through many tests. A chest xray showed what the dr thought was another pneumonia, but a cat scan showed it was scar tissue from multiple fractues in my ribs. BEcause of this I am on oxygen all the time and get breathless when I do the least little thing. The doctors all say that my high dose of pred. has caused these fractures. I also had an MRI on my lower back which showed very bad arthritis. I'm to have an epidural for the lower back pain. I will be curious if it will help me. Does an epidural help the pain of PMR?

I am so upset that I don't know what is wrong with me. Is it PMR that won't go away? Or is it arthritis taking over my bones? I cry every time I try to go down on the pred dose and find myself in that inflammatory-type pain that is so hurtful.

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