depression with polymyalgia

melv

So sorry to hear you have joined a 'club' that none of us wanted to be in.

However you do need to read up on PMR. At the beginning of this thread there are two 'pinned' items and they refer you to a website for PMR & GCA UK North East Support. On that site there is a wealth of information on the Diagnosis and Treatment of PMR and also other useful information and people's stories.

Currently there is no known cause or cure for PMR and steroids are given to enable to you live as pain free as possible. Unfortunately they come with side effects. Nobody gets them all. Fatigue can be difficult to deal with and you have to learn to pace yourself. Whilst PMR is not life threatening, it is lifestyle changing and one of the most difficult things to come to terms with is to learn 'how to go with the flow'.

The paper that comes in the box with your steroids, does list the most common side effects and you need to read it. Highs & Lows, Fatigue, Moon Face, Peach Fuzz etc. But they do get better as time goes on.

PMR does seem to occur often in 'get up and go people' but it is livable with, albeit a different sort of life.

Do visit the website and read all about it. By the way, never ever apologise for 'going on' we all do it we need help, mostly family and friends have never heard of it and as you do not look ill it can be difficult for them to understand. Keep on coming back and ask your questions, someone will always answer.

the answer is yes yes and yes the pmr creates fatigue plus both in muscles and mood and we have to cope accordind to our lifestyle making adjustments for good and bad days ,sometimes over a period of time you can lift your mood but i still get why me dys 17 months on and get very frustrated when i drop something or struggle with the stairs the weepy bit has gone for me but i certainly did my share at the start . steroids are known to raise or lower mood and sometimes you get both or what i call slushy brain where you forget things or put things away in daft places so i am afraid yes you can have depression with pmr and steroids and have to find a way through it , keep talking to us, nothing you have experianced has not happened here before so someone will help carolk

melv

I do so sympathise with all that you are going through. Some of the things you are experiencing can be as a result of the inflammation caused by the PMR whilst others are down to the steroids, or sometimes even a mixture of both. Rest assured though that all these symptoms will lessen, if not disappear completely as you get down into the single figure doses, but don't rush the reductions, slowly slowly and by small amounts is the key to keeping the inflammation under control.

I found one of the ways to keep my spirits up was to have a short walk in the fresh air each day, even if pain allows you only 5 minutes at first and gradually increasing as pain levels reduce - such exercise is known to increase those feel-good endorphins and it will also help to avoid muscle weakening from the steroids. I also find that meeting up with a favourite and understanding friend for a coffee and a chat can lift your mood. It will get easier, I promise.

MrsO

Thabkyou SO SO much you very kind people for replying to my email. On reading all your repliesalot of what is happening to me now makes sense. I will go to the other forum and have a read, and also read the information that comes with the tablets, silly that I did'nt before, but thought. oh well I have got to take them so whatever.

I am a young 64, in my head. always have been lol. Usuall I try to be the person that can be there to help someone else out, or listen to them or there problems, but like you said , I don't look ill, especially when the old makeup is on, but underneath could be feeling rotten. I have this thing whereby I have to carry on doing the housework or whatever even if I feel pooh, brought up that way I suppose. Like you said, go with the flo, this is something I MUST LEARN to do. I think maybe have tried to lower the striods a little bit to quick maybe. Since taking them I have put on over one stone and a half, this does not help your self esteem, as I was over weight to start with , and was just going try to loose some weight, then this hit me.

Thanks girls for ALL your advice, really appreciate it, I will let you know after taking all your advice, and learn to say to myself, JUST GO WITH THE FLOW lol x

concerned when you commented on lowering steroids there is quite a bit to understand can you tell us how you are doing it then we can advise carolk

At the very begining in Feb of this year my doctor put me on 40mgs per day. After awhile he stared to lower the dose where I was on 20mgs per day. In Mat I think it was, I saw a specialist who asked me at that time how I was coping on that amount. I was okay, taking that amount, and the pain seemed under fairly good control. What he asked me to do was over a period of months gradually reduce them,

This was okay, and until about a couple of weeke ago I was taking 15 per day. In the last week I have experienced quite abit a pain again in the top part of my arms, in the muscle and also in both the top part of my legs . Today I upt the dose to 20 myself, so hopefully that will help. Does being under stress make the condition worse. I was involved in a car accidentabout two weeks ago, I was'nt hurt , some elderly gentleman went into the side of my car while I was staionary in a Tesco carpark. It all the hastle that goes with it, insurance bods etc, Iknow its not the end of the world, but can't seem to take things how I used to. I also think I should have an eye test, which is due, do';nt think I can read at times as good as I did, could be my imagination, but I must get it checked out. I shall see my doctor just before my steriods run out, he is VERY good , I do have a good rapour with him, which means alot. I have also recently had to undergo test for bowl cancer, which does seem to be ruled out, thank god.. Do have to go into local hospital early next month just for a little procedure, just a day thing. There, you have had ALL the moans Carol lol.

One more thing if I may, I do not sleep very well. I can wake up most nights around three oclock, read for a while try to go back to sleep, but can't, end up taking pillow and cover down into our lounge, telly on, eventuall y go to sleep with it on. Could be abit like this before taking steriod, but has definatly got worse since being on them. Any advice would be welcomed most gratefuly. x

Stress is really a problem when you have PMR. I am not surprised you had to up the dosage. Stay there till you see your GP and slowly slowly does it.

The teely is a good sleeping pill, but have you tried a radio in the bedroom, tuned to a 'talking' station they occupy your mind and stop you thinking and can be soporific.

i wish eilleen was about she would write a long post and explain everything ,butuntil she gets back i will try and help ,pmr is a condition that causes muscle pain and lots of symptoms that you can read about on the other website it definately pays to have your eyes tested a because of gca and b because pmr and steroids affect your eyes .you have started on a very high dose which in it self can explain how you felt re mood and sleep patterns ,i hope you are taking all your steroids am and together with food and your adcal later i the day .stress definately affects pmr and you have had more than enough to trigger pain and low mood !!! now to discuss reducing steroids , slowly means different things to different people and gps ! reducing from 20 to 15 quite often is done quickly but i find this does not work for me ,i go down 0.5mg each month but even then i have to stay o a dose longer at times .at your dose i would suggest going down 1mg simply because dropping from 20 to 15 you lost the dose that was holding the symptoms going down slowly gives you and your body a chance to find out at which dose it can cope with the pmr .also the first week of reducing is often rotten with pain returning this can be the withdrawel from steroid if however the pain starts to build over a few weeks this indicates the infamation is coming back and you may have to up the dose dont slip into the trap o yoyoing the dose ,better to stick on one dose for a period of time reduce slowly and gauge the symptoms and the blood markers for you next reduction . hope this helps i am afraid the sleep disturbances are the steroids i do take the occaisional 2 paractamol if iam desperate carol k