Grrrrr........

[Pat9442]

Quick review first. Diagnosed with pmr in July 2014. Started at 15mg pred and have been to trying to get beyond 8 ever since. Feel good at 10mg and sometimes 9mg but anything less means back to pain and exhaustion. Also on Azo. Major flare in July and a less severe but uncomfortable one over the last two weeks. Increased pred to 10 (was on 8.5 - going slow) and am coming out of it. Have a brilliant rheumy but today I saw a very young and obviously inexperienced sidekick! She a) had not read my notes b) did not listen to what I was saying (repeated the pred dose three times for her, and c) obviously had no idea what pmr is all about. According to her I cannot have pmr because I get pain in my knees (forgetting the shoulders, back and hips)and that means it is OA not pmr. Told her I have two knee replacements and the surgeon found no trace of OA but she insists! According to her the pred is masking the OA symptoms Her suggestion is to take paracetamol if I get any pain. Oh and perhaps to increase the Azo - although I told her that since I had been on it nearly a year and still could not reduce red it was pretty useless. I quoted the research papers from Edinburgh and Bristol (I have a medical background) but to no avail!

I have always felt sorry for those of you who have had problems with GP's and consultants who do not believe in pmr. Now I really understand your frustration

I am not going to increase the Azo, I am going to go down the very slow route and see what happens

There rant over. I hope you all have a flare free and happy Christmas

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Welcome to the other club no-one wants to be a member of!

One lady on the forums, who shall remain nameless, had an experience similar to that. She had GCA (so very high pred dose which had caused massive weight gain) and, amongst other things, knee pain and was pretty well forced to use a wheelchair. When she arrived at clinic a young, inexperienced, arrogant, woman doctor told her her knees wouldn't hurt if she lost weight. The lady looked at her and asked if she'd read the notes? Yes. Noted she was on high dose pred for GCA? Yes. Was she aware of the side effects of high dose pred? I don't remember the next comment - but she was told to get out and not come back until she had learnt something. The nurse was killing herself and happily fetched the consultant. Who the lady told the story to. He dealt with the young woman appropriately because HE knew the lady's history.

I wrote on another forum this morning that I wish that GPs and other doctors would get over their love affair with paracetamol. There are now at least 2 studies that show it is no more effective than placebo and you run the risk of liver problems - so you might as well take the sugar pill placebo and not murder your liver. Just like if you do happen to find a homeopathic remedy does something for you - what's wrong with that? How it helped I don't know but when I had orthopaedic surgery to remove a plate I used arnica pills to please a friend: I had no bruises, next to no pain and walked out of hospital without crutches the next day - the physios and nurses were flabbergasted, they'd never seen anyone like that before. Or what is wrong if a complementary therapy helps remove at least some of the pain you have? Every little helps, as they say. And you don't have to beg a doctor to listen to your complaint only to be told to take paracetamol - which you have no doubt tried anyway.

Another lady got the same story from her GP as you got today. She was to take the max dose of paracetamol - she wasn't happy but she did. Two months later at her routine blood test (at least her GP was good enough to do them) her liver enzymes were sky-high. High enough for the GP to order an emergency ultrasound - which was clear. Stopping the paracetamol brought the liver enzymes back to normal.

Bah!!!!!!!!

I didn't know that knee prostheses could develop OA? That's a new one on me...

[polkadotcom]

If my prosthesis is likely to get OA I'll take it back and demand a refund!

I think that everyone gets to meet one of 'these' docs in a lifetime. The troubles start when it's two or three times and you know that what they are saying is a bag of old tosh.

I'm not in the least confrontational, but I have learned to (a) shout them down (b) ignore them and (c) just sit there saying 'no'. I like (b) best.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I have OA in left shoulder knee and lower back, and found Pred at the doses you are referring to does not mask the pain. I will agree it does if you are on high doses I.e. in the thirties or forties, but less than that - no.