Turmeric, Bicarb and Pred Reduction

Sounds fair enough! The only thing you REALLY need is pred. Plus calcium and vit D supplement which have been shown to reduce the loss of bone density sometimes (but not always) found in pred patients. I've never taken anything else...

I have been taking bicarbonate of soda for a ew weeks and can't be sure i it does any good but I doubt it does any harm and it's cheap!

CAUTIONARY TALE :   I had a flu type virus last August  (2017)  -- I ran a high fever and had very strange, painful, debilitating muscular symptoms which moved over a couple of days from the upper part of my body to the lower.  When the virus abated, I was somewhat ill for several months.  Then, in October, I noticed that after sitting in the car or riding the exercise bike at the gym, it was very difficult to get up and move forward.  It was getting harder and harder to move.

In November, I went to the emergency room because the pain in my hips and legs was excrutiating and I could hardly move or function.  It felt as if I had rods in my legs and was unable to bend them.  The ER visit was a total -- I mean total -- joke.  I saw my regular doctor a week later.  He was pretty convinced I had sciatica or some kind of bone problem (as did the ER guy).  I went for xrays, MRIs, etc.  None of the tests showed anything.  Except -- blood work.  My CRP and Sed Rate, etc. were very high.  I also had candida.  So my doctor began treating me for candida -- I had a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE reaction to that medicine.  And I wasn't getting any treatment for my other intense issues.  

So -- I started researching.  It wasn't long before I was pretty convinced that I had PMR (but with no GCA that I knew of -- no symptoms).  At that time, I was talking to my neighbor about my issues and before I told her what I thought I had, she told me she'd had PMR for 4 years and was on Prednisone the whole time.  She also had GCA.  She was also very convinced I had PMR.  

A couple of months go by -- my doctor still has not admitted I had PMR nor did he suggest Prednisone, nor much of any thing else.  I was in excrutiating pain and practically paralyzed because it moved from my hips and legs to include my shoulders and arms.

And my symptoms kept morphing.  I was in pain, immobile and miserable.  I wouldn't even talk to any friends or family about it because nobody could understand my predicament and kept trying to give me advice that had nothing whatsoever to do with my symptoms.

Finally, I decided to implement some of the natural treatments I had researched -- through scientific articles, books and blogs.  

Let me interject here -- as some who have seen my earlier posts know -- I only was on the Pred to obtain a diagnosis -- about a week.  Yes, the results were dramatic and I felt like a normal, non-sick, pain free person.  

HOWEVER, I have several other medical issues that Predniszone will wreak havoc with.  I have had a lot of severe and weird illnesses in my life and I knew I couldn't afford to take any chances with Pred or any other steroid.  I would have been so much worse off on the Prednisone than just getting through the PMR.  I couldn't risk it.

So, the research led me to several different things which I started with my doctor's blessing.  Within in one month, my blood tests were reduced and within two months -- GREATLY reduced -- and more later.  My pain, stiffness was STARTING to go away.  IT WASN'T OVER NIGHT.  I had to learn what worked, what needed to be tweaked, etc. But late February, early March, the good results were gradually coming in.  

I found that things went in WEEKS.  I must have gone through about 15 or more different scenarios of issues.  Each one would take 2 or 3 weeks to subside, then a new one would pop up and 2 or 3 weeks later, it was gone, and another would surface.  Sometimes, they were actually at the same time.

Anyway, I was progressively getting better and better.  I began to be able to walk better, get up and down from a sitting position better, etc., etc.  I knew I was really on the mend when I was able to stop lying and sleeping on the living room couch (5 months) and move to our bed.  That was heaven.

Then recently, I discovered the baking soda.  I gave it a try and had amazing results.  But it took longer than just a few weeks.  Natural things are not necessarily overnight solutions.  

And I wrote on this blog of my successes.  I caveated that blog with many cautions -- 1. Do your own research.  2.  Do the research intensely.  3.  Read everything -- pro AND con.  4.  Remember that I WAS NOT ON PREDNISONE.  4.  I had no idea if baking soda and prednisone would work together or not.  5.  Everybody's circumstances and bodies are different.  6.  Don't take my word for it.  7.  May not work for everyone.  Etc., etc., etc.  I MAY HAVE NEGLECTED TO SAY, GIVE IT TIME - can't remember.

Anyway,  I had the advantage over the readers of this PMR/GCA blog in that I never did the Pred for more than a week.

I am not completely well.  I still have issues that may or may not be related to PMR, but I am about 85% functional.  Some days 100%.  Do I still have some pain and stiffness -- yes, but it is constantly being reduced.

Here is what my doctor said to me last Tuesday (7/31/2018).  He said -- "I wish I could give your phone number out to all my other PMR patients.  It is unheard of how you have progressed in such a short time."   (Meaning w/out Pred)  I was on cloud 9 to get his admission that he saw that this stuff worked.  It hasn't necessarily been easy or smooth, and I have gotten a LOT of flack from Prednisone-Only people, but it has certainly been worth it for me.  My goal has been to be "free" in one year.  Starting with the treatments say in mid-February or early March, that will be February of 2019.  At this point, I am 85% or more there -- practically pain free and extremely mobile.  To me that is huge.

And I think it is pretty incredible to have gone from a paralyzed, excrutiatingly painful and debilitating state to walking around like normal, doing light housework, being able to take a shower by myself without having to take a 2 hour nap to recuperate, being able to dry myself off and get dressed without help, being able to cook 3 meals a day and wash dishes -- you get the picture.  I think its pretty incredible to be at this point without Prednisone.

I just wish it was something more people were ABLE to do and to be able to get such relief as I have.  It breaks my heart to read some of the posts on this blog, especially those people who have suffered so badly for years.  I wish what has worked for me could have worked for the rest of the group.