Chest pains

Thanks Eileen googled and it says it may be caused by having a cold which i have had. I guess being sick could generally bring on more pain as I have read pred should be incresed if you are sick. Thanks for your help. Joanne

It's not uncommon alongside PMR - maybe mention it to your GP.

You know, if you have got to 4mg on your own there is no reason at all to use MTX and there is no real need to be under a rheumy - won't your GP help you manage the final stages? To be at 4mg after 18 months is something most of us just dream about.

Gp and rheumy both think i have too much pain that i take 1 tramadol 50mg a day they dont like the pain killers but im 58 and still working 18 months till i get my pension. I agree with you. I would rather up pred than take methotrexate hense why i am looking for another rhemy. If i don get on with the next one i will ask gp to look after me alone. Hopefully by then i dont need either. Between you and me i think they second guess diagnosis and because i have hand and feet pain they red flag RA. Until they tell me I also have RA I am not doing any experiments with more drugs. thanks again Your awsome and I dont know how you find the time but you are very much appreciated. Joanne

I found Tramadol was a complete waste of space for my PMR, pred worked though! If you have reduced so well you should be able to just have primary care for your PMR. A lot of people never see a rheumy at all in fact.

I have never been refered to a rheumy, always worked with my GP.  Only thing I have besides meds is bloodtest every 6 months or so.

My GP sent me to rheumy when I was first diagnosed  just for a

second opinion. He concurred since sed rate was 92. Rheumy started me on l0mg of pred a day. How much good do you think that would have done my pain?.  I went back to GP and he upped it to 20 and I never went to rheumy again. Just because they have the titile of Rheumy doesn't mean they know what they are doing.

know what they are doing

Concur - My first visit to the surgery was with my named doctor and he suspected Sciatica and prescribed a NSAID - no effect - so went back but this time saw a locum who spotted the symptoms and sent me for a blood test and then phoned me up to come in straight away.  Started me on 30 mg and within hours I was getting about like a 21 year old. Can't comment about Rheumys! 

My wife is a Specialist Nurse with a BSc in Public Health (Occupational Health) and she had an idea it might be PMR, one reason she got me to go back to the surgery.

Interesting though, I started at 10 mg and that worked for me (actually I personall decided to try 5mg despite what my rheumatologist said but it wasn't enough). The 10 mg worked fine though for my pain and symptoms.  I am now down to 8 and kind of stuck there.  Slowly, slowly trying to reduce lower, taking it cautiously.  So there are some of us who started quite low (10 mg) and yes it is PMR.

do you remember what your sed rate was when l0mg would

help your pain?   Just curious

Originally I was given a 6 week course of pred, 2 weeks each of 15/10/5. You could argue I was started in the normal dose of 15mg but it was for only 2 weeks and it worked to a level I'd have accepted permanently in 6 hours! In 4 weeks I was down to 5mg and it also worked fine. But I never managed that again until early last year. If I'd been left at 5mg then instead of it being stopped and a flare being there in hours what would have happened? 

Ok I started actually for a few weeks at 5 mg when I was first diagnosed because I ignored my rheumatologists advice & was really scared of steroids. She called me, we talked, realized it wasn't working and upped it to 10 mg which is what she originally wanted me to start at. It worked, pains subsided, I could move again. Stayed at that 10mg for 3 months or so. Began tapering by .5 slowly. Now down to 8mg and using dead slow to go lower but so far no go so I'm holding for awhile at 8mg. 

Saw GP 5/22/15 CRP 59.9  SED rate not done

Saw Rheum. 9/2015 CRP 4.1 SED rate 27

11/3/15 CRP 1.6 SED rate 5 (taking 10 mg pred)

I go Monday for blood tests again and to meet with Rheum. I seem to manage symptoms fine at 8mg right now but even pushing it down to 7.5 I really can tell the difference. Of course I had to shovel out my stuck van from yesterday's snow storm so shoulders sure hurt today! At least I got out of the road! (I'm in Michigan)

8mg is such a low dose if I were you I'd stay there for a while.

I"d love to be able to get down that low and not have the

pain.  I tried going from l7mg to l6mg and pain started all

over.  I'm now trying Slow/Dead Stop (whatever it's called)

to see if I can get some better results.