Christmas Greetings.

Hello everyone, it's seems ages since I've contributed anything to the forum but many of you know I run holiday cottages, I'm still decorating the house, I run an auction site for charity and along with all the daily tasks that we all do there's very little time to contribute. But, I do follow every posting and I read all the fantastic advice given that any contribution made by me would be simply a repeat of all that's been said. 

This year I have successfully made the final reduction! I followed Eileen's dead slow and almost stop method and throughout my journey it's proved invaluable. I had a sort of flare when I reached .05mg when the pain returned to my hips and knees but funnily not my neck, shoulders or arms. I simply upped the dose back to 2mg and all the pain vanished. I slowly reduced once again and this time all seems well. I'm currently 1 day zero, 1 day .05mg  and I hope that come 01st January I will join the zero club completely.

I was hoping that along with the steroid reduction my blood pressure would somewhat return to normal but alas it hasn't although I am still at least 2 stone overweight so that could be the issue for the high blood pressure and so that is still obviously an issue that still needs to be worked through.

I, was only 51 when after 3 months of hell and no help from my GP was eventually diagnosed with PMR by a Rheumatologist, and unlike many of you (which is very sad to read about), have had the support of this wonderful Rheumatologist who supported my adoption of the dead slow and almost stop method of reduction, stopped the Alendronic Acid that had been prescribed by a locum GP and booked me in for a Dexa scan which came back perfect. Support is vital to get us all through the highs and lows of this condition and as well as my Rheumatologist I had this forum too. Thank you all so much.

As well as wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and all Best Wishes for the coming New Year I want to say that in the darkest hours we all despair about our 'lot' with this condition but hang on in there...It can be a long old haul but with support we can all get to a position whereby the condition can be easily managed even if it's forever or if we're lucky it will burn itself out. I wish you all every success with your PMR journey. With all kind regards, Tina.

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