First visit to Rheumatologist.

I was dismissed by a rheumy as "it's only OA, why are you wasting my time". After 6 months of pred all the so-called signs of OA that she claimed she could feel had gone and have never reappeared. Another rheumy was insistent it wasn't PMR despite a textbook set of symptoms and response in 6 hours to 15mg pred. He was desperate that I had a history of psoriasis or ankylosing spondylitis - ruled out by x-ray. There is a real feeling they think PMR is beneath them. 

However - on a lighter note: how long have you been on pred? If you are not reducing to find the right dose for PMR where pred is the only medication that works, reducing your pred dose shouldn't be too bad because as you reduce the pred, the mtx should start to kick in over the next few months if it is RA. It can take up to 6 months but many patients notice a difference sooner than that. On the other hand - if the symptoms increase with reducing the pred then you could ask for a rethink.

Standard test for PMR that I've found 'all' Doctors do:   ask you to rise from a chair without use of hands and ask you to raise your arms above shoulder level.   I could look around and vist a thousand Doctors but in my experience it would be pointless: if it doesn't affect your hips and shoulders then it is not PMR

I've been splitting my Prednisone dose for a while as I find this the best compromise: half on waking and half before retiring, this allows me to get up in the morning and function reasonably well during the day, I've found taking the Prednisone in one hit makes for severe pain when rising..   The Rheumatologist suggested I continue splitting the dose , but half on rising the other half at lunch.   Won't be doing that again, this morning I couldn't use my hands or arms at all and my neck and ribs are killing me.   To make it worse I can't even apply saline or sorbolene for the urticaria and I hate asking my wife to do this for me, it is just so humiliating, so here I sit itching and hurting like never before... .

I have no doubt the Urticaria is linked to RA and the RA is linked to the elbow infection after the arthroscopy, it all seems to fit.   But at least the Methatrexate hasn't shown any side affects - yet.

I'll stick with my current Doctors for now, any more will only confuse the issue.   Doctors are loath to disagree and all seem to be afflicted with the same tunnel vision: if the symptoms don't match standard paradigms then it's not happening.

Very difficult to have confidence in the medical profession but unfortunately they are a necessary evil if only to gain access to medications they may help.

My elbows are so bad now, they ache all the time and I cannot touch my face, neck or back, even with the one on which I had an arthroscopy.   The Rheumatologist noticed this, took some measurements and seemed quite concerned.   I'd like to get my left elbow done also as it is the worst  but I'm very reluctant to have another medical butcher cut into me for fear of what they may let loose on me next time.

I would also suggest you refrain from calling others ‘daft’ because their life experiences don't mirror yours..   

Here's a tip: , ignore my posts and I will ignore your advice - sounds good to me!

If I was asking for something I guess there would be one of these things there somewhere:   ?????

Why am I here?   simple really, have you heard of 'venting', 'musing' or or just plain frustrated..  

If you don't want people to arc up then don't give them a reason to!   You never know who you are talking to, more to the point, you don't know other's circumstances.   'Common sense':   it's not for everyone but nice to have just the same!

Tell you what, lets call it quits here, before this gets out of hand!   Deaf ears here me thinks...