Bloated feeling even after reduction

Not to be "preachy", but be thankful that you do not experience the PMR pain.

Good luck!

i DO experience the pmr pain! every day! im not one of the "lucky" ones who are pain free.

Which does beg the question: are you on the right dose?

ive never been pain free. by pain i mean stiffness and soreness in the morning, eases in afternoon, but never goes back to "normal." standing is always hard.

even at my starting dose of 20, i still had stiffness and soreness. saw rheumy who said i "had a bad case."

ive read many times on forums that not all of us are ever pain free?? i dont expect i ever will be, at least not until the pmr burns itself out.

im getting in 5000 steps a day along with some gentle stretches. best i can do.

There is nothing to be thankful about when on prednisone. It's a toxic drug, and on top of the bloating and weight gain, people develop diabetes, high blood pressure and osteoporosis. A terrible price to pay. They need to find another treatment, in the case of PMR, the treatment is as bad as the disease.

It is not - I am living proof of that. The treatment is NOT as bad as the disease - with pred I got my life back after 5 years of pain and disability. And for that I am very grateful. Because you have had a bad experience does not mean everyone does.

PMR can progress to GCA - and that can kill or blind. Taking pred at low to moderate doses can prevent that.

They do need to find another treatment, I won't dispute that - but that is easier said than done. For the moment we have pred, which need not be as bad as you are suggesting.

I've gone up 2 sizes. gained 20 lbs. my stomach is huge. I can't stop eating sweets i crave them all day.

Agree with Eileen pred gave me my life back too and even though I have to stay at five mg for the rest of my life I'm still grateful for a drug that gives us some relief.

Hi Twopies, you and I have spoke about this before. Highest dose was 30mg I started to get relief. My Rheumy wanted me to start reducing. I said when I am PMR pain free, 6 weeks on 30 mg and I was Mr Hyde not Dr Jekyll. I am surprised my wife didn't divorce me. After 6 weeks I started modified DSNS, with reductions 10% or less. Now finally breaking the 10% rule reducing from 5 to 4.5.

Not feeling the best but out walking and will do so. I remember the struggle to walk after the bad flare, I will get there, with a smile. 🙂

Rosarita,I have disagree, you must work on it and that is no fun. Watching my diet my Diabetes is a little worse, but under control with oral medication. I have been a type 2 diabetic since 1962. Last fall, my Bone density scan showed an Improvement, Did have a drip before the scan 2 years ago. I lead an active normal life and know that would be possible without Prednisone. Prednisone may cause my cataracts, to get worse, but diabetes does also, I don't care one way or the other they are doing to get worse. I am 82 and active, positive with a smile. 🙂

We all have different experiences. All I can say is that my life had careered to a halt before diagnosis. I thought more exercise would help the pain and stiffness. Lethal! I tried physio, massage and went to a chiropracter. All had no effect whatsoever. I climbed out of my car by slow degrees, I had terrible trouble climbing out of the bath, stopped going into town as it was so painful. I realised that I was beginning to avoid friends and family because I was in constant pain and discomfort and couldn't think much outside getting through each day. Because of Pred all that went away. I've just come back from a three week holiday touring parts of South Africa with friends and yesterday I was outside in the sunshine playing with my grandchildren. I am deep,y grateful for Pred with all its possible side effects - a number of which I'm lucky enough not to have ( don't like my plump face but it's a small price to pay 😃 ). I wouldn't like other people to be so fearful of Pred that they continue to live in the twilight zone I was inhabiting. Nor for them to imagine that they will get all the possible side effects, same as with other medications. This is not to say that you are not completely entitled to your own experience and reactions to it. The best of luck to you whichever course you choose. Sorry this is an essay!

Eating sweets or anything with simple carbs of any sort or sugar will just cause you to want more. as your blood sugar level shoots up and down as insulin is triggered by the high sugar levels. Insulin causes glucose to be deposited as fat in particular places under the influence of pred - and sweets are often made with fructose syrup as it is cheaper and sweeter than glucose. That causes even more fat to be deposited.

Cut the sweets and eat low carb with plenty of vegetables, protein and fat and you should find the cravings reduce - and also the midriff fat was the first that faded away for me.

I didn't develop any of these side effects - no osteoporosis, diabetes or weight gain, probably because I eliminated all refined carbs from my diet, especially wheat, and exercised regularly to the best of my ability. Other more minor side effects were probably a result of the way pred can affect our electrolytes and once I knew this I was able to eliminate those side effects too.

Parts of your "essay" could have been written by me!

You are craving sweets because the gut microbes are telling you to feed them. Through diet (and you'll have to be very strict with yourself for a couple of weeks, NO sweets and no carbs from grains and instead lots of salad - variety of vegetables - and healthy protein and healthy fat) you can rebalance the organisms in your gut and one day you may, as I did, one day discover you are craving kale (or something else equally healthy). Believe me, this is possible.