Polymyalgia hit me out of nowhere......

It is gone midnight....I cannot sleep, so I got up and finished some of the Xmas cards. I am only doing some strictly for the family...I have had an e,mail from channel 4 Deal or No deal....inviting me to apply to go on the Show.....! Before last July, I would have been so pleased to accept....Now, with this, It is so impossible. It is hard to realize how many things we cannot do anymore ! On Christmas day, my husband and I will be alone. I have decided to have a real old fashioned English Mixed grill for Christmas lunch....Bacon, egg (sunnyside up..) mushrooms, fried tomatoes, sausages, burger,a potatoe waffle...and a tin of musical boxes..(baked beans)...and a glass of Montepulciano..(from Abruzzi grapes...)for afters...Cornish cream ice cream, drizzled with honey and SOAKED in brandy.......and then may be, I shall have to pick myself up from the diningroom floor.......if my old legs allow.....Bless you for writing to me. Love and Best Wishes, Granny Moss.

Hi to you both

If I was you Pauline I wouldnt do it !! If you always do it isnt it someone elses turn ?? I just know now having had this for the 2nd time so thats over 4 years in the last 8 that when I overdo it I suffer after I am 62 now and was 54 when it all started At the moment I am finding this weather enough to cope with !! Because we all look well its sometimes only very close friends who realise we are not ourselves I am certain your family wouldnt want to think that feeding them made you worse !!

Granny Moss I always worry if I see people posting in the early hours of the morning !! I am cooking almost traditional Xmas dinner on Xmas eve and then on Xmas day we will have the cold meats and bubble and squeak as on Boxing Day we are off to Lanzarote for a week of I hope Sun !! We normally go to my husbands sister in the depths of Dorset where they get lots of snow and ice so we arent risking it as I have my horses to worry about as well Your Xmas dinner sounds lovely What part of I taly do you come from ? Tomorrow we are supposed to be going to Kingston upon Thames to take my Italian niece and nephew out to lunch ( they are at University here) snow permitting !! and their mother is already worried as they are due to fly to Bologna early next week and they have snow also !!

Hope everyone feels Ok Little tired today as I dashed around a bit yesterday so a tidying at home day then out tonight

Best wishes

Mrs G

Thank you Pauline. Mrs G is veru wise. You must try and not overdo things, because there is always a price to pay, afterwards.....Dear Mrs G. I come from near Venice, where I had my honeymoon....64 years ago.....I went back regularly to Italy, but 2008 will have to be the last time I travelled there. I do not think I could cope with the airports and all that, now. Thank you for your comments. I am now in a problematic situation with Preds tablets. My last prescription was wrong. I was given 2,5 mg tablets, gastroresist built in...but with it I was making up the dosage, with gastro free tablets, because I am taking 15mg Lansoprazole capsules, prescribed to me by the hospital doctor. Now, When I went to my doctor, I explained all this, but the new prescription I was given today, was again for 2,5 mg Preds with gastro blocker included....I refused to collect them, and gave back to the chemist the ones that they gave me last week...I went back to the surgery and asked them to prescribe for me a 5mg Preds, regular. They are getting m e the new prescription which I shall now go and collet nex monday....I was not very happy, because to go to the surgery, I have to walk there, and the pavem ents were covered with ice, a bit dangerous for old legs....I am now at home, and trying to get the blooming Christmas cards ready for posting tomorrow...The ones the ones for Italy, Ireland (Dublin) and Montreal am afraid will be * A little late this year.....* Maybe dear EileenH will be soon here, and tell me if I am right in worrying about mixing the Preds tabs with and without the Gastro block, as I am taking 15 mg of the stuff before I take my Preds ? The doctor took me off VIT A & D...because I was already taking the full dose with my Calcium Tabs...I get very :? Must go now, Hubby is getting his knickers in a twist over his computer playing up....as if I did'nt have enough troubles with my own.....All the best for now. At soon. Granny Moss. Ciao !

Granny Moss - don't worry about the mix of pills. Too much gastric protection is better than not enough! All it was doing was costing your primary care trust a bit more - not that prednisolone tablets are THAT expensive! But if they are giving you a gastric blocker and you have no other problems with the ordinary white tablets, why did they give you both? :roll: The pharmaceutical knowledge of the average GP is ... no - I won't even go there!

Where near Venice? We live in Val Pusteria, just outside Brunico - but we cheat, it is a mainly German speaking valley, less than 10% native Italian speakers. I do manage a bit of Italian, when I need to, and can discuss the weather and the ski runs with Italian tourists, but for the next two and half weeks I will have to get the brain in gear as we are spending Christmas and New Year with a sort of colleague of my husband's in Andria, near Bari. Papa and the oldest son (both doctors) sort of speak English, the twins (going to be doctors) speak a little bit but Mama speaks very little! My Italian neighbour here told me today I just need to use hands and feet - it will be fine! The worst thing is I have no lovely Italian clothes - I won't manage \"la bella figura\"! I DO have a fur coat that would be very useful here the next 2 weeks (amongst all the Nonnas come for their babysitting week for their chidren having their ski holiday) but I hope it won't be as cold in Puglia. Though - all Italy has been snowed on today and, of course, that's even worse than snow in the UK! :lol:

Happy Christmas everybody - I'm off tomorrow to be fed big style and given the grand tour of the very south! Don't know what internet access will be like - and I don't think there are any McDonalds there! Will be back after Epiphany - hope I'm in time to catch my Three Kings to get my house blessed!

EileenH

Mariarita

I have taken Lansoprazole 15mg per day since day one - over three years ago, and with both enteric coated and non-enteric coated. No problems at all.

I also take 75mg of soluble aspirin.

I have not heard of anyone having problems taking a gastro protection tablet. Some people cannot get away with Lansoprazole, but then get prescribed Omneprasoel (spelling).

I don't think there will be any problem for you to take a gastro protection with both coated or non-coated.

Mariarita

I knew there was something I meant to say - I have said this so many times before, I forget to repeat it.

Chemists - the golden rule for patients is that every time they are prescribed tablets, whether you have had them before or not, and particularly if you are on any sort of long term medication, which you are with Pred. You take the prescription to the Chemists, ask to talk to the Chemist and ask him about compatibility.

Chemists know more about drugs than Doctors. And that is a fact.

Twice my Chemist has rang my GP and had the prescription changed because of the combination I am already taking. It is not my GPs fault, I have the best GP in the whole wide world - but as he says, Chemists know best and as I said to him, Chemists are trained in drugs - horses for courses.

By the way, there is a Yellow Card system where you get the card off the Chemist and report side effects.

This enables them to try and sort prevalent side effects out with the drug companies. Its up to us.

MrsK is so right - the time when they really find the side-effects and interactions with drugs is AFTER the clinical trials. Trials are done with relatively small numbers of people - once the drug is approved there are tens of times as many people trying it out. If you ever think that something was definitely due to the new drug you were given (and by that I don't just mean the new, 6 months ago it was released and cures everything drugs, I also mean something new to you) don't suffer in silence, do your homework, make notes and go to the doc and tell him/her. If they won't take you seriously - go to a sensible pharmacist (there are bad ones of those too) and ask their advice. You'll be able to identify the \"bull*@$t\" ones usually.

And if you EVER take something new and get hives, swollen mouth and mucous membranes in your nose and throat, trouble breathing - don't mess about, ask the doctor. If it's overnight or the weekend and there is no-one else, go to A&E or call 999 and explain to the call handler at the ambo service. BUT, remember, difficulty in breathing means that - not because you have a cold and a blocked nose or you have been crying and bunged up your nose. 999 is an emergency service not a walk-in centre - most of our generation knows the difference - but they will never complain about nice polite people who are worried about a genuine reaction to a prescription drug (they won't refuse to deal with the other sort either) and, again, better safe than sorry. Basically - if you can speak whole sentences, you are not short of breath. On the other hand if it takes you 3 attempts to get out what your name and address is - you could well be short of breath! Unless the address is five lines long!

But you're not going to need them - and if you do, offer them a mince-pie and have the kettle on when they arrive. They might just accept if they've been sitting on standby in a carpark somewhere in the ass end of nowhere! :coffee: :lol:

EileenH

Hello again

Eileen has sorted you out Granny Moss !! We are very disappointed as we have to cancel our trip to see Italian niece and nephew before they go home to Italy for Xmas as there is so much snow forecast My husbansds sister is married to an Italian Dr (ear nose and throat ) and lives in Modena which is only about 90mins from Venice so if we go to Venice they come to see us but her husband comes from Lecce in Puglia where Eileen is going !!

Have a great holiday Eileen Hope your journey is Ok as I think they have lots of snow too !!

Best wishes Mrs G

:cry: Dear girls....I seem to have made a real \"minestrone mess\" of my ability to post a reply to your comments. I do not know if this one will work.... \"THEY\" have blocked me because of an e. mail ?....THEY say : someoneelse already has this USER name ? ! Yes, A..e ...., that one is ME !...and my password...so, They sent me new everything on my e.mail...I think if I was not confused before, I am NOW !.....I am trying to post this...see what happens.....Granny Moss...very upset.....

Mmmmmmmmm

You're coming through loud and clear Granny Moss :ok:

Lizzie

Dear Lizzie Ellen, I have just come back from shopping at the Co-op ( our corner shop...) Tres' expensive.....The pavements were not too bad, but by the time we walked back home, the cold gradually crept up from my toes to my derriere....and I thought that my Aorta was giving up....and luckyly made it home berore I was turned into a frozen block......My husband was following with a full shopping trolley bag ? and it was lovely, because he was so cold, it could not nug me from behind !....In summer time, I make him walk in front, so that I do not hear him moaning.....What a pair grumpy old shoes we are ! !......But, we do laugh a lot !...I Have a lot of pain in my hands this morning. Has anyone have pains in the hands ? It is very demoralising not to be able to do anything. Anyhow, I do hope I do not hit the wrong keys...and cause more trouble.....At soon. Love. Granny Moss

Never had too much pain in my hands but had 6 weeks of terrible pins and needles in my arms, wrists and hands early on in my PMR. At one point I had to stop driving, but as I lowered the Prednisolone so the pins and needles subsided, guessing there was a link, but not sure. Hope yours hands soon feel better, keep them nice and warm if you can. I'm sure this cold weather is throwing up a lot of additional problems for us all.

Lizzie Ellen :snowman:

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Rimini overlooking the Adriatic - and there is about 6 in of snow out there!

Granny Moss - the worst pain I had with PMR pre-steroids was in my hands, thumb and a couple of other finger joints (plus what was thought to be RSI in both elbows). Sometimes it was so bad I couldn't hold a wine glass! :wink: :lol: I have NEVER dropped things - I had loads of wedding presents still after 30 years - but I was so clumsy and doing anything hurt so much.

cheers for now from the snowy Riviera!

EileenH

:snowball: Snow in Rimini Eileen? What is the world coming to!!

Lizzie