rheumy won,t confirm gp,s diagnosis of pmr but keeping me on prednisone

[arvine]

well have told my story many times on this site already, but to refresh, gp diagnosed me pmr, based on symptons at onset, couldn,t raise arms,couldn,t brush teeth etc, without excruciating pain, ,, pain in buttocks, hamstrings,he started me on 40mg, relief within hrs that day,then reduced every few days by 5mg, til saw rheumy 2 wks later, was at 25 by then, she examined me,said 40 mg pred would relieve pain from any cause, wouldn,t confirm pmr, no baseline bloodwork done, and current bloodwork she requested at that time ,inflammation markers werent high, however, reduced me to 20 from nov 1, kept me there until jan 18, then reduced me to 17.5, saw her feb 14, said pain in shoulder not from pmr, and moved my shoulder, said good range, because i am going away to cuba for week on mar 16, said i shouldn,t reduce to 15 until i return,so my point was, and is, if she does not think i have pmr, why keep me on this drug so long, so slow reductions, etc, anyone else have this problem, on prednisone, with unconfirmed diagnosis, pharmacist tells me why hasnt she reduced more quickly, until get to a point where all blood levels back to normal, so i can be assessed to find out exactly what was and is causing my symptons

[SheffieldJane]

I am afraid that patients have to come off steroids slowly even if you didn't need them in the first place. As I understand it, they create a dependency.

Interesting that she said 40 mgs of Prednisalone would relieve the pain from any cause. It's not what I'd gleaned from this site.

Sorry that you are being so messed about. I hope Cuba is wonderful!

[jac-s]

My GP diagonised me with PMR but rheumy left it unconfirmed. However for PMR I was started on 20mg (some people also start on 15mg for PMR), so for PMR your starting dose of 40mg sounds high to me. Rheumy wanted to get me off steroids quickly so blood work could be done but I then developed hearing problems so my doseage is still at 10mg after 10 months