Tooth extraction while on pred

Great minds!!!!! Are you my long lost twin ;-)

Hello Eileen, maybe so, we are long lost twins! One thing I do know is that my mum was a nurse all her working life and when I worked I worked as a journalist so I have a very enquiring mind and always want to get to the  bottom of things armed with as correct information as possible. I hate this condition because sometimes I feel I'm a slave to it and that does not suit my personality at all! Reading all the posts on this site, I'm astonished that there are Drs and even consultants they are simply so Ill iinformed about medicine in general and especially this condition. Therefore I am not going to be prescribed this and that without a real established basis behind their choice of action, I am not on a trial here and my health and future quality and length of life is very important to me. So there endth the lesson! Christina

Must be so!!! 

It infuriates me that I know so much more about PMR than so many doctors do. I am so lucky - my GP worked in rehab in the local hospital for a long time, that is basically rheumatology combined with some orthopaedics. Although she isn't totally up to speed with PMR she knows a fair bit, enough to never suggest speedier reductions, in fact she is always trying to slow ME down! The real shame is her English isn't good enough for me to hand her papers to read and there isn't time to discuss it at length in the surgery though we do if there isn't a queue. She suggested trying Lodotra (because it isn't a pain to get here) and it has been great. 

But for goodness sake - if you have a patient with a condition you don't know a massive amount about surely you go and look it up? The GP in the UK practice who DID know about PMR taught one of the other GPs how to look things up with google and get the right sort of answers - they were the same age, lots younger than me and presumably computer literate, so I can only assume women are more inquisitive than men!

I think Eileen my pursuit for the correct treatment plan all began following diagnosis. I had all the classic symptoms of this condition for a month before I visited my then gp, as I thought I had trapped a nerve or something like that in my neck. But as the symptoms worsened it was a trip I could no longer avoid. After I was diagnosed I looked up this condition on the Internet and to my utter astonishment I had all the symptoms and I had informed my gp of these. She told me she couldn't for the life of her think what could be wrong as although the blood results from tests she had ordered showed there was inflammation they did not prove possitive for rheumatoid arthritis so I should just keep taking ibuprofen. My blood pressure was so high that I phoned a nurse friend of mine who said that my blood pressure could be raised because of the pain and or the ibuprofen, which she told me should only be taken for a maximum of 4 days and for any longer period under strict medical supervision, which I was not receiving. Anyway by the time I saw a rheumatologist, and that was at my request, I was in so much pain that I barely had 2 hours sleep a night. I could hardly walk and all I did behind my husbands back, because I didn't want him to know just how Ill I felt was cry.

when I took the first dose of prednisone within 4 hours I was walking quite freely and I remember I cried again, but this time for completely the opposite reasons. Anyway, as I said I looked up my condition, immediately changed gp surgeries. my new gp is great and even at the 'new patient appointment' the nurse was so informed about the condition that I for the first time felt safe. All that aside, I can't understand anyone who would allow someone to prescribe any drug for them without asking a few simple questions. Christina

I don't get it - if you google the symptoms and raised ESR it almost always offers PMR amongst the first options, it really isn't rocket science. Pity help the other patients because there is no "positive" test for RA, loads of patients are Rhfactor -ve for a very long time. And she obviously wasn't concerned about the raised BP was she?

I've just been chatting with a friend who was told by her GP to take ibuprofen for the pain that turned out to be PMR. Three doses and she had a coffee-grounds gastric bleed needing a few days in ICU. Now she has osteoporosis in her hip so was told she needed alendronic acid, not likely she said, so they assured her that risendronate sodium was much safer and that would be fine. So the other day she'd got to the stage of awful gastric pain, could only sleep sitting up, nothing to eat after 5pm and sloppy weetabix and lukewarn tea was the limit. The GP said double the zantac and keep taking the risendronate until you see the rheumy. I thought her response was quite mild! You wouldn't believe the rest of the conversation. 

Clone your new practice - where do you live? Can we direct more people to move there...

Eileen, I live in the beautiful and incredible county of cornwall, in a tiny hamlet just outside camborne. Re the prescribing of ibuprofen, when I informed my then gp that ibuprofen was making absolutely no inroads re pain control she told me to take more? Christina

Speechless - hope I never need her attentions! Devon had joined the list of places I wouldn't go and live since Exeter hasn't much idea. All you need is a decent GP though. You would think that given the exodus of retired persons to the west any GP in the west in general would have some idea about geriatric disorders though wouldn't you? 

Absolutely, what makes it worse is that PMR isn't a rare condition. Approximately 1 in 1000, mainly females suffer from it, hope I got that right!

so how she could say she couldn't for the life of her think what could be wrong with me made me speechless. Given that the surgery is a huge practice, the occurrence of 1 in every 1000, she was about my age 53, I can't believe that in a career that must have spanned for at least 20 years I was her first patient with PMR. But as you say I've hit the jackpot now with the surgery I exciled to. Christina

Right - we'll hope for some karma in a year or two. There is a former GP on one of the other forums who admitted to us that she always tried to rush patients off pred and couldn't accept PMR hurts (and how many rheumies are there who apparently believe that!). Now she has PMR herself. And - gosh - now she understands...

Well I wish her well with her recovery. Unfortunately for her she learned in the end by experience and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

christina

I do have a dental hospital in easy reach Eileen, that's another option to try.  Dentists aren't my favourite place to be but I'd be there in a flash if they'd take this tooth out.

I'm on 10mg pred now which is slightly better than when I first went so I'll give it a go and find the best option.

I had all my dental work done at the dental hospital in Dundee when I lived there - amazing care! A lady on this forum has had wonderful treatment at Newcastle dental school I think. Unless it has changed - no charges.

Thanks and I'm beginning to see that I've probably spent nearly five months in pain with half a tooth when it could have been done. Thanks a lot for the advice.