Newbie..... worried about taking steroids.........
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hello everyone. I suddenly developed pain in legs, pelvis, buttocks, upper arms, shoulders and neck. we thought it was a flare of my fibromyalgia which I have had for over 15 years. However, GP said he thought it might be PMR. So only thing showing up in blood tests was an ESR of 35 .....
so as I am in agony , cannot even turn over in bed, nor get up from chair, without awful pain, for about 4 months now... GP prescribed just 5 days of 30mg prednisolone. However, I'm sitting here staring at box !
i have paroxysmal AF for which I take Metoprolol and I am on Warfarin.
Also, is it right that this is a self limiting disease? and can last up to to 5 years? However, I don't see anyone reporting back that they are free of it .
Thanks for any advice or reassurance ......
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Anhaga maria01811
Posted
As this site has been all but deserted, owing to some ill-advised technical changes a couple of years ago, you are more likely to hear from more people if you look up HealthUnlocked site, the PMRGCAuk community.
Don't be afraid of pred. The five day trial is to find out if you do have PMR as one of the diagnostic tools is a good response to a moderate dose. I would suggest, however, that 30 mg is a bit high for this. The upper limit is usually 25 mg, and many are started at 15 mg. The thing is other ailments may respond to a higher dose. Do check in at HealthUnlocked, I'm sure you'll get some good advice there from some very experienced patients!
If you do well with the pred and PMR diagnosis is confirmed, you would stay at a moderate dose for a month or six weeks and then start a careful taper to find the lowest dose which still controls the symptoms.
PMR cannot be "cured" but pred gives us back our life. Eventually it will go into remission. The median duration is nearly six years but a lot of that time would be at a very low dose, much lower than your starting dose. We need to be careful not to taper too quickly as we can cause flares and that means more pred, etc, etc. So slow and steady is best. If nothing else PMR teaches us patience!