Any success with alternative therapies?

Prior to being diagnosed with PMR I suffered with the extreme pain for 4 months.  First some friends convinced me to see a chiropractor who diagnosed me as having Lymes disease.  That was believable, as this area in the northern Minnesota forests has a very high rate of people getting Lymes from deer ticks.  His treatment had me skeptical from the start - some potion (don't remember what it was) that I was to place 3 drops under my tongue twice a day.  I did that for almost a month with no effect.  His claim was that I might need 6 months to a year of the potion and appointments before I'd see results.  So much for going to the chiropractor any more after that!

Next, my wife suggested I see the alternative medicine therapist that she sees regularly.  At this point I'd been to my regular doctor twice with no diagnosis, so I was getting desperate and made an appointment with the therapist.  I will say that she (the therapist) did feel that my pain was coming from inflammation of the muscles and not the joints, so she was on the right track.  She gave me 4 sessions of acupuncture over 2 weeks time.  I will say that the first 2 times did give some temporary relief from the pain but only for a few hours each time.  It was almost like I'd had a temporary nerve block that'd slowly wear off.  The 4th appointment was a disaster.  I went in feeling like my pain was 8 on a scale of 1-10.  I came out with the pain at 12 and would have gladly accepted a wheelchair if there'd been one there.  That was the last I went.  Fortunately I had another doctor appointment 2 days later and that's when a physician's assistant suggested that my symptoms sounded like something called PMR and that I should try Prednisone for a few days and see if it helped.  Instant pain relief and that was the last I did anything with alternative therapy.

I had 3 months chiropractic treatment (twice a week), as I thought it would help my hurting hip.  My Chiropractor suggested I should go in for further tests as it wasn’t taking care of the inflammation problem in my muscles/tendons but helped keep my hip from going way out of alignment until I got stength back in muscles/ tendons area.  I am currently on 15 mg Prednisone.. I started low dose Dhea and l-Arginine (helps strengthen muscles) which both seem to help noticeably .   I also take Omega 3’s, and a few other things.   My symptoms started 6 months ago with extreme fatigue then my hip.. I had a frozen shoulder in 2014, and that pain came back pretty bad 3 months ago.   I have just been on Prednisone 3 weeks and the new supplements just a few days.    Feeling so much better..

I kept upright and reasonably mobile for the 5 years I had PMR and no pred (not diagnosed, no raised markers so there couldn't be anything wrong) by attending aquafit every day and then being able to do Pilates and Iyengha yoga once or twice a week - both heavily adapted. My Bowen therapist and osteopath were also crucial! None of those are available to me at an affordable price where I live now but since being on pred (about the same time we moved here) I have found therapeutic massage important to manage the myofascial pain syndrome part of my pain. It is commonly found alongside PMR and is caused by the same cytokines but they are concentrated in trigger spots on either side of the spine or in the fascia of the muscles.

Anhaga on this forum has had a lot of benefit from a laser therapy but the exact name escapes me - I have just tried to find her posts about it but the site refuses to allow me to see all 51 of her posts and unless I can do that I can't find it! The search function on this forum is utterly useless - you get on better using google and adding patient.info to your search! I do know that there are posts on the Healthunlocked forum - and its search function works well.

EileenH wrote: "My Bowen therapist and osteopath were also crucial!"

I did not listen to Eileen for about 18 months, big mistake.

Out of wheelchair and both it and zimmer frame consigned to garage.

Best of all, the therapist will tell you if after three weeks, one hour sessions, and you remember to drink the water..................if no relief.   So for three weeks of paying.............you will know whether it is working for you or not.

Been off line so a bit late.

People I know in the States have used Bowen so they are active  in the States..............