Thank you Mrs.K and Administrators

Think it must have been everyone Betty, quite a boring weekend with no one to 'chat' with! Even if I have nothing to offer I always like to pop in a couple of times a day to see what's going on. Hope everyone is feeling well.

Lizzie Ellen

Yes I was feeling quite put out when I couldn't get my daily \"fix\" on here yesterday.

Good to be back,

Molly.

Yes I was wondering if it was them or me

Tried the main Patienbt UK and couldnt get on there so realised it was a big problem Welcome back everyone missed you all !!

Best wishes Mrs G

I'd thought it might be me too until I went on the arthritis insight forum and saw Rick saying he'd found it down when someone said they had tried to use the link I'd given. At least we're back to normal again - wonder how long it'll take everyone to find out and start talking again!

As for week, year - how about decade? Is this the start of the new one or was that last year?????? Questions, questions!

But - can we have some sun please? Pretty please!

Eileen

Ditto, ditto, to what everyone's said !!

Makes me realise how much I look forward to catching up with everybody :D

Pam

Make it Millennium (1 or 2 ns? ) that will see us all set up for life! 8)

Going over to the leg pain thread now.

Hello everyone - just got back from the Dr and was cheered to see we are all back up and running. It's such an active forum that I began to wonder if we'd worn it out!

Not excited to be told by the Dr that my 4 week old swollen glands could take another month to return to normal but he said the good news was that it was on both sides - apparently had it been one sided it would have led to worries that something nasty was lurking. He has made an appointment to see me again in 3 weeks. His parting shot was that he would then check my blood pressure - like Betty, a sore point with me as I don't want to add more tablets into the equation either! The worst part is that there's swelling on the glands under my tongue as well so everything I eat has to be swimming in gravy as I'm not making enough saliva to break down the food in my mouth. Also hubby's new nickname of gerbil for me is now wearing a bit thin! :lol:

Really now trying to cheer myself up here as just had to break off for a 'phone call - very sad news that a friend died this morning (only 65), and yesterday my cousin died at the age of 68. I'm not enjoying this year so far.

At least I'm glad I'm back with all my PMR/GCA friends on here and I'm grateful for that - thank you moderators.

MrsO

Hello everyone ! It'me...Granny Moss...Spent nearly all yesterday trying to get on the site ! Had my computer inside out ! Went trhough all the settings etc. Being told by Microsoft that they could not find fault with my set up.....felt very miserable, thinking of all of us being scattered all over....Hope you are doing not too bad....I have today decreased to 6mg

Preds.So far, only mild, not too bothersome pains. Gone on the bus to the City, done some shopping. Now back home, and checked the site !. So Happy now !. Wednesday I am going to see the doctor and asking for an ESR ? and, as I am having slight pains in the head, sh :D ould I ask to check me for GCA ? I seem to worry about getting it ? And should I also ask for CRP ? While I am there ? I will go now and make some beef burgers.....and later on come and check if I have some answers...THANK YOU TO THOSE whom give us the use of this site. Saves me having the terrible depressions that I would have if I was having to cope with PMR alone ! THANK YOU !. And thank you all for your help to me ! Granny Moss. :D

I had this site as my home page so thought I couldn't get online at all. Then my daughter said to try typing in another address (site). When that worked, I realized the problem wasn't here.

I haven't posted for a while. I am 76 yrs old. Started on 20 mg prednisone Feb. 2010 with my 2nd bout of pmr. I am now down to 6 mg/day and feeling better than I have in a while. Have yo yo'd a bit from Aug. to Nov. going from 7 back up to 12 because of some good and not so good stress. This seemed to help and have been reducing at 1 mg every 2 weeks or so since then.

As I was a few months changing doctors (my previous one moved away), I was pretty much on my own and went by how I was feeling. Taking more tests, eg. bone density, xrays, etc. before really getting started with the new doctor. He seemed to be aware of pmr and signed for refills of pred.

One bit of really good news, I think, is that a recent lab test showed ESR as 10. Two years ago it was 90 and 4 months ago it was 30. I don't know if CRP was tested. The 2nd page of the lab report didn't print out the day I was there.

Good wishes to all of you for 2011, hope it is a more comfortable one than last year.

Winnipeg, Canada

Granny Moss - the doc will probably do both ESR and CRP if they do any blood tests, plus a load of other things they should be keeping an eye on.

The sort of pain you should look for to do with GCA is around your temples and in your jaw when chewing. And also any blurring of vision, especially when you wake up, even after a doze, or anything like a curtain across what you are looking at, even if it disappears again.

You amaze me! Now me: when I couldn't get onto the site I first assumed the whole of Italy was playing on the internet so the download was slow and then, when every other site was fine, assumed this had problems not me! I couldn't check the settings if I wanted to - and I wouldn't waste money on Microsoft helplines! The frustrating bit was not knowing how to contact the site's administrators! Wonderful woman MrsK! :lol:

EileenH

Hallo Granny Moss and don't apologise for worrying about GCA. We all do and about 6 months ago rushed off to surgery to have pain above and behind left ear checked. My Doc was away and saw very young ( well looked young to me but I stop knowing how to judge once they're older than about 9 ). She called senior partner as she said my PMR was complicated. They both assured me that it was not GCA and that as long as the pulse in the area was strong it was ok but it WAS taken very seriously so if in doubt, seek advice. The pain sometimes disappears and I don't know what causes it.

We read so often that PMR symptoms are pain in the large muscles of hip shoulders and thigh and sometimes neck. Reading on here it seems to me that the pain can be anywhere. Eileen complains of foot pain, I know and I have had it sometimes. Sometimes my hands hurt and last time around it was my arms which this time have been totally free of pain and it's mostly in my legs. I've said before that it would be a good idea for some of the profession to read this site before pontificating.

Did anyone else see the doctor joke in the S. Times or Observer?

A doctor died and went to the pearly gates in his scrubs and walked to the front of the queue saying he should be given priority as he was a doctor who had a degree and had cared for sick people etc.He was told to take his place in the queue. While he was waiting another doc arrived in scrubs and was not challenged when HE went through the gates into heaven. First Doc asked ST.Peter why second doc got prefferential treatment. \"Oh\", said ST P. \"that's God. He thinks he's a doctor.\"

Hi everyone, glad to see the UK site is back up.

For future reference (like Wpg shared), if you can't get to this site – or any other site for that matter – try going to 'Google dot com' (had to leave out the real dot or this won't show up for awhile :roll: ) and search for part of the web address or URL. For instance, I searched for 'experience (dot) patient' and every link I tried didn't respond. That's what made me think the server was down.

Hope everyone stays warm and starts feeling better. :wink:

I received this message within 10 minutes of sending, I am no miracle worker but the admin people are really on the ball.

Thought you should all see it.

Thank you for your message.

Yes the website was down at the weekend for some reason and this is being looked into, however, it should be up and running now! Thanks

Hi Rick

Thank you for that useful advice - really helpful when one's short on technical know-how. I did eventually try accessing the site through another link (PMR-GCA North East Support Group) and when I found I couldn't get in that way either I realised something was really wrong - we are so lucky that our Mrs K knew how to contact the right people.

Hope you're doing well.

MrsO

Hi there everyone like you all I am glad to get back on :D