Greetings from Cape Town where life is good but we are having a bit of a drought and could borrow some of your rain. I got diagnosed with PMR in October 2016...all the classic symptoms with prednisone giving "miracle" relief. Ive had a quick recovery in relative terms (having read some of your scary posts)....and came from 20mg to 10 to 7,5 to 5 to 2,5 mg prednisone in Feb, and now down to 2,5mg every 2nd day for the last few months (btw we only get 5mg tabs here....no 1mg). So no pain for a long time ....but I have two little niggle, and need advice. I have some bursitis in the hip....no pain , its just an irritation when I play squash (Im 66 and do things like that) or when I run . Also I have some tendonitis in my arm/shoulder....not the serious rotator cuff stuff that I once had.....but right arm is weaker and it affects my backhand lob. I do all the exercises and stretches but the damn thing wont go away. So this physio lady (trained in UK mind you) suggests Cryotherapy....cold nitrogen freezing the area. It cost about 22 pounds a treatment (not expensive for you,I know) and she reckons I need about 6 treatments. I had one treatment but cant say it helped. I said I would only carry on once I have consulted with PMR UK group (who know everything). Can anyone oblige.
Greetings from Cape Town......Cryotherapy.....doe... - PMRGCAuk
Greetings from Cape Town......Cryotherapy.....does it help in final stages of PMR?
Hi. Beautiful photo. I am fairly new to all the pmr business and have no experience of cryotherapy. All I will say is the thought of it (and excess heat) makes my muscles hurt. I went and looked up life expectancy of siberia which is coldest place I could think of in winter, where i think it can go down to minus 70, and it's males 55 and females 69. No idea what that means lol. Obviously totally different and can see how it is used clinically for cancer treatment. Hope others have info. I would be interested to know if this therapy is beneficial in this context. Brrrrr. Good luck!!
Hi berold,
Can't help with the rain - at the moment anyway, lovely and sunny! No doubt it will be along soon though.
Can't help with the cryotherapy either, nobody on here has mentioned it as far as I know. But PMRpro will probably be able to help, she's the expert regarding bursitis.
Glad to hear you're getting on so well, and that you're keeping fit, but just make sure you're not overdoing it, the muscles take a bit of a battering from the PMR and the Pred.
Thanks so much for comments
Is this local use of cold? As opposed to being put in a cold chamber? The cold chamber version of cryotherapy didn't work well for one lady in Germany when a rheumy rehab clinic inflicted it on her during a "Kur". She went home worse than when she'd arrived!
I have to say you sound as if you may have had a "reactive" type of PMR to have got so low so fast. Which may mean what you have now is more bursitis than PMR. Really haven't come across cryotherapy for bursitis though. Really not sure I'd be too enthusiastic - cold never does my muscles any good.
Hi PMRpro. Can you please explain your reference to 'reactive' PMR? Are there different types of PMR? Thanks
There is some thought that there may be - and in the case of "reactive" illnesses they occur after having another event, it may be trauma or infection, and then last a relatively short time. There is a form of arthritis that is due to that sort of cause and it disappears after a few months never to appear again. There are certainly groups of fairly different PMR: that last 2 years or less, that last about 5 years or so and which are pretty much permanent. But no-one knows for sure.
I suppose I mean the symptoms are due to something else - rather than an immune system malfunction. PMR is just the name we give to a set of symptoms - the underlying cause varies. The others should be ruled out first and the PMR we discuss here should be a final resort diagnosis.
And not forgetting the very serious 'Man' PMR... 
It's terminal isn't it?
YOU should be so lucky...! 
Is there a way to test or to know what kind of PMR one has? IL 6 levels for instance? I wonder sometimes why I haven't had much fatigue...Does the fatigue get worse as one continues reducing the Pred? I'm just starting 12.5.
It's a very recent train of thought - and no, they haven't yet found a marker that gives any guide towards how long PMR will last. I have heard doctors claim that people with higher ESR/CRP will have longer courses - so where do I fit in with resolutely low normal levels at all times and a 13 years PMR history?
Below about 8mg the fatigue may appear as a reflection of adrenal function not keeping up with topping up the lowering pred dose. Some very lucky people don't have fatigue at all.
Ho ho, in my part of the UK we're crying out for rain. My South African plants are quite happy, but the English cottage garden plants are on their last legs!
I think I'd want at least some sort of explanation of what they think is supposedly going on physiologically with the cryo.
ROFL! And what rain would that be? lol! We are in drought circumstances too and your photo certainly says that Kaapstaad is in better nick than we are. Take a peek at Wimbledon! 🤣😂 (watch it rain now!)
Unfortunately, I know nothing about Cryogenics as treatment for the alive, so am actually writing to say hi to the beautiful Cape! ☺️
Good luck in your quest and take care!
😄
Haai berold. Greetings from a S.An from PE, living in UK. Haven't a clue about cryotherapy...at first thought crying was going to be the latest 'fad'. What a thought!
Wonderful photo, I live in beautiful Maroochydore, Qld. Like you I started on 10mg Prednisone and now down to 2 mg a day. I am dancing 3 days a week and riding my bicycle most days.
I am happy just trying to gradually reduce and hope to stop treatment in a few months. I follow Kate Gilbert's advice in her book. I am now gluten free and try to eat healthy. Good luck with your treatment.
Thanks for comment...I did the same as you in following kate gilberts book.....and exercise. I think once you are down to 2mg (or every other day) then you dont have to worry about cortisone side effects too much.
Greetings from the UK berold, lovely picture of SA.
Interesting to read your post, especially about playing squash. I used to really enjoy playing it regularly into my mid 50's, (I'm 60 now). But squash is notoriously tough on the joints and muscles due to its fast pace -as I well-know! Maybe your niggles are just a combination of that + some residual PMR inflammation + getting older? (sorry!). Either way, doing any sport like this well into your 60's is pretty good going by any standards!
As for your relatively fast pred reduction (well done!) due to having a possible 'reactive' form of PMR, it does appear that there are different 'strains' (?) in terms of severity / duration etc, and also that it can affect men and women differently. I'm certain that my PMR was caused by an auto-immune over-reaction to a bout of bacterial pneumonia, and I think there's a clinical research study from the Netherlands (?) with some evidence that viral and bacterial infections can trigger PMR.
As for cryotherapy (as opposed to crying therapy!), I seem to remember that, for some minor sports injuries (e.g. muscle sprains etc), a localised cold compress is often recommended to reduce inflammation / swelling / pain in the blood vessels surrounding the injured bit. It sounds like cryotherapy works on the same principle? Mmm, but maybe a bag of frozen peas might do the same job cheaper (and you can eat them afterwards)?!
That said, I see that the PMR 'Aunties' are already on the case and they are the people who know best. Just don't get on the wrong side of them....
Hope this helps, enjoy the sunshine there.
MB
See you, MB - stop insinuating nasty things about us. Or we will turn nasty - but only to you
Ohhhhh,, :-(. It's back behind the sofa for me then (again..)? 
Don't believe a word of it MB!
Our PMRpro doesn't know how to be nasty beyond baring her pearly whites now and again! 😂🌹
I know, PMRandRA, just PMRpro and me winding each other up (as usual - it gets quite competitive sometimes!)
And it is fun to read MB! Nothing like a nice bit of banter to raise the tone! 😲😂😜
Thanks PMRandRA. But I don't know about raising the tone - LOWERING it, more like!?
MB hits the nail on the head again...
Bless... All I can say is: YOU LOT started it!
Good job I didn't read this yesterday after my very trying day - took 12 hrs to get from sunny Dorset to even sunnier Spain via the vagaries of flybe!
In a better mood today so will let you off reprimand !
BTW don't recommend you eat the defrosted frozen peas - typical man!
Ohhh DL, that's crazy (12 hours etc...). So what am I supposed to do with the peas? Eat them frozen (or maybe load my pea shooter with them)?
As usual you've gone off on a tangent- you mentioned about using frozen peas to reduce inflammation- so once they'e defrosted you shouldn't use them for eating. Supposed to be cooked from frozen, not when they're a mush!
Never did quite get why it makes a difference - they have to get to thawed while cooking. Nor the stuff about not refreezing things - being as they do it in factories...
PMRpro and DL
Clearly, this is very serious and controversial topic on which many of Us Lot have strong and diametrically opposing views.
I fear that it will inevitably develop into a long-running saga of Acrimony and bitter Conflict - but hopefully, ultimately, Reconciliation.
The title: War and Peas..?
Stop it! I'm on me hollerdays!
Much more important fish to fry!
'Elf & safety as usual!
Pea soup?
I wondered about mushy peas - but they require that tablet thing don't they?
This is all getting VERY silly now - I like it!
Greetings from NY! What is a niggle?
Hi Marie
'Niggle' (noun or verb): a trivial annoyance or criticism, e.g. I have a niggle (n.) in my back / stop niggling! (v.)
MB
Love it!
Apparently of Scandinavian origins, 'nigla' - to be ineffectual. We use it a lot in British English.
e.g. Stop niggling / I have a niggling doubt / problem with my car etc.
Thanks for the comments Mark
I have bursitis and read very recently - I forget if it was on this forum (pred head?) that if you freeze water in a yoghurt pot and then apply that to the joint, presumably taken out of the pot and wrapped in a cloth to prevent 'freezer burn' - that might help. Cheaper than 132 pounds and you get to take the yoghurt with your pred! It said it was better than a bag of peas - not sure why. I've not tried it yet as I'm still plucking up the courage, as I'm a bit nesh. "Nesh" = English dialect adjective meaning unusually susceptible to cold weather. Obviously you wouldn't know about that at the moment!
Niggling and Nash : two words of the day. I was Nesh the first sixty years of my life. But, postmenapausal, (PM vs PMR) I became the opposite of Nesh. Heat became my nemeses instead of cold.
The My husband who was always a cold lover has become Nesh . I find many couple friends have followed the same pattern.
Do you have a word for the opposite of Nesh?
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