into remission

[kingharold11]

I saw a different rheumy last week as the original is away sick. This one was a young man very nice . Having asked me all sorts of questions and asked me to lift arms up above my head bend down and touched my toes lift legs up etc he then decided the PMR which I have had for several years had gone into remission. I must say I agreed with him lets hope it stays that way. I need to get off the steroids (I am on 5 aday) but he said don't be in too much of a rush as the dose is very low. Wendy

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Well done Wendy - great news!

As Rheumy says, still go easy on your reductions, it's very easy to rush things, but that's the last thing you want to do now you've got so far.

As I've said before I think my GCA went into remission a few months ago, but even a few weeks ago when I tried to go from 0.5mg to zero too quickly I felt a bit uneasy with the situation, so went back up. Am now reducing again, a little more slowly this time, and things seem okay.

I think I probably would have been okay last time, but I thought 'what's the point in feeling slightly under the weather for the sake of a few more weeks and half a mg'.

Also, you need to remember the lower you get, the more of life's 'normal' aches and pains come back - ones you've forgotten about under Pred. It also takes about a year for your body to fully recover from Pred, so I guess we must also expect days when we still feel a bit off colour. But having said all that it's a great step forward.

Take care.

[kingharold11 in reply to DorsetLady]

thanks for your reply

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Wendy, great news! It sounds like he's been quite thorough in his examination and spoken wisely about not rushing to get lower on the steroids, so all looking very promising. By the way, I was kept on the 5mg dose for 5/6 months - would have been longer if my rheumy had had his way but we met half way! Hope it all continues to go smoothly now for you.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I would say he obviously doesn't understand the nature of PMR - of course your PMR is in remission if you are taking enough pred! I can touch my toes and lift my arms above my head - BECAUSE I take pred, if I didn't the symptoms would return. I got down to 4mg and could do all that - but I had a flare in January.

I'm not saying yours hasn't gone into remission - I'm just saying that the 5mg could well be more than enough to make the difference and really you should have been trying to reduce below 5mg on a regular basis - because that is the only way you can tell it HAS gone into remission. I do hope you are able to reduce further - but don't feel you have failed if you can't.

[jinasc]

I can only say, that whilst this young man might have been very nice and he thinks your PMR has gone into remission. I would have agreed more if he had than arranged for you to have an ACTH test to see if your adrenal glands had started functioning again, especially after 7 years of pred.

Read PMRpro's reply again and go very very slowly and ask for that test.

Send an email to pmrgcafightersne, subject heading Reduction Plans (Dead Slow and Nearly Stop by PMRpro and Tortoise and Hare) bothwill be sent to you free of charge. The two plans are slightly different, both based on Ragnar's method and to date we have sent out well over 200 plans and many more have people have used one or both. They have both at one time or another been posted on the three forums. They have worked for so many people in enabling them to reduce slowly. Just remember, pmr comes when it wants and goes when it wants.