Dear 'You Lot' here (!)
Just to wish you all a happy, peaceful and restful Christmas. And, more important perhaps, hopes for a positive, more healthy and optimistic year ahead?
Sincere thanks for your support and friendship on our different but shared Journeys in this great Community.
Time to Turn the Page... BUT DON'T OVER-DO IT WITH THE TURKEY, SHERRY AND MINCE PIES!!!! (Ok, I'll let you off just this once) 
Keep smiling on the Journey
MB 
Hi Mark,
What about Salmon, Bubbly and Pavlova? Just a light lunch as it’s 26deg in sunny NZ.
Enjoy your day, and good health for 2018, and maybe a best selling author to boot. 📚😀🍷
Your trusty partner in crime!
Thanks DL, sounds good to me! Don't make me jealous - freezing cold, wet and windy here in Dorset today. Oh well..
Same wishes to you too, thanks for the fun!
MB
Definitely windy , just got blown home from our daughters, here on Portland !
Didn’t know you were that close - must catch up when I get back
Hi DL
Does it become less important to take calcium supplements as we reduce our steroid intake, or, is it important to take it regularly whatever the dosage? And, how effective is HRT in protecting the bones?
I seem to have lost a lot of my old messages on this site and not sure how to resurrect them. Best wishes for a healthy and happy new yea . Sue
There are studies that claim that even below 5mg there is still an effect on the bone density. However - given this study:
medpagetoday.com/rheumatolo...
one is left to feel that the risk to our bones is overegged. Many of us would develop low bone density anyway - so does the pred change that significantly? This study suggests not. Unless a patient has a dexascan before having taken much pred thay can't know - you may already have poor bone density anyway and the pred maybe just speed up the process. Certainly, it is said about 50% of the US population develops osteoporosis anyway - and I have seen figures that say 40% of patients on pred do so. Which doesn't suggest to me that it makes much difference.
jinasc on here had been on HRT for years before GCA and pred - superb bone density before and after pred. Don't think she took calcium the entire time as she had other problems with it.
I think though that the HRT benefit would be in having good bone density before starting pred - that's what I put mine down to. I have recently seen articles saying that the use of HRT overall should not be discouraged - but it shouldn't be advocated for bone density protection alone.
Thank you. That is encouraging. Health and happiness for the new year,. Sue 😀
Hi,
See PMRpro has answered. Only thing to add, is GP advised me to stay on Adcal even though I’m now off Pred.
Thanks. I’ll do the same.
Thanks. I’ll do the same.
Right back at ya! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🎅🎄🤗
Thanks Hollyseden, and you too!
Happy Christmas to one and all!
Happy Christmas Mark
Have a fun day, and I hope all goes well for the New Year
Pete
Thanks Pete, and you too
Happy Christmas Mark - looking forward to relaxing with your book!!
Thanks Jackie, hope you enjoy it!
And to you, A very happy Christmas and a very happy HEALTHY literary new year.
Greetings Ron - many thanks and the same to you
Merry Christmas!
Happy Christmas Mark. Thank you for your insatiable quest to add humour into our lives, as well as the serious stuff! All the best for the new year. X
Many thanks Marilyn. Well, I try my best!
Back at you Mark. Thank you for being on the lighter side and giving us a giggle now and then. Humor really is one of the best medicines. 🤣🤡
However, there's one thing that continues to bother me and I hope you don't mind my mentioning it. It may be just me, but I do not want to be thought of as a "polymalingerer". Perhaps it's my professional background in human resources where a malingerer is a person who deliberately pretends to be ill in order to avoid having to work. It just doesn't sit well with me.
Greetings Jean
Thank you for your kind thoughts and honest feedback.
As for the term 'polymalingerer' (!), this is intended as a 'mangling' of the words 'polymyalgia' and 'lingerer', i.e. those of Us Lot for whom Polymyalgia Rheumatica 'lingers' / hangs around.
I try to use the above term in a conspicuously humorous context and with no other implied or derogatory meaning (in the same way that I use the Headmaster-ish term 'You Lot') - and I apply it as much to myself!
Many respondents to my Posts here seem to take this, and others of my salutations in the light hearted spirit in which they are intended. That said, your comment is a reminder to me that, for some in the PMR GCA community, my well-intentioned but tongue-in-cheek style of humour might not always be appreciated.
Maybe the term 'polymylingerer' would be better? I just don't know unless I get some feedback! Either way, it's never my intention to offend anyone in this lovely Community and I apologise to anyone who is.
Answers on a postcard please..?
Best wishes to all following this thread
MB
Thanks for the clarification Mark. I just hate the thought of giving any credence to those useless GP's and so called specialists who don't take us or our condition seriously.
Ahh.. thanks Jean. I get your drift, sorry for the mis-understanding, it all makes sense now!
I can totally identify with what you and a few others here say about some (I stress, only some, hopefully) medics not taking us seriously with our very real health conditions. Hopefully it's rare, but I've been there too - with a GP who didn't 'get' that I had Pneumonia symptoms and just said 'it's probably nothing - take some Paracetamol'. That was nearly 3 years ago, and I only got proper investigations / a formal diagnosis after I banged-hard on her door and insisted on an urgent hospital referral due to the intolerable / scary lung pain: or I would admit myself as an emergency case. Result? 6 hours in A&E, a CT scan, x-rays, lung function tests, etc etc. and Hey Presto, dx: Severe Bacterial Pneumonia. 2 weeks of the correct antibiotics and all sorted. But a black mark for that particular GP... Grrrr. 
The rest is history - PMR and all that goes with it. But a privilege to be part of this very thoughtful Community.
Best wishes and thanks
MB
Exactly! 👍
Wow! Sure glad you didn't give up and banged on that door a few years ago!
Mark as I said to PMRpro "Lang may yer lum reek".
Same to you MB. Thanks for all your cheerful posts ,and good advise when needed 😀
Greetings 'ML' (!) Many thanks to you too!
MB'
Thank you for the laughs, smiles, and good advice! Have a Happy Christmas and a safe New Year.
Enan
Many thanks Enan, a privilege to bring a few smiles in between the important but often more serious bits here. All best wishes to you too
Hi Mark, thanks for making this journey more bearable with your funny posts. All the very best to you (and everyone else) for 2018.
Thanks daw, and you too!
The Lighter Side: Christmas Speech and Greetings from a VIP Guest at Benjamin Mansions.. ;-)The Lighter Side: Leave or Remain? ...Breaking News… ;-)The Lighter Side: New Year's Greetings from 'Uncle' MB ;-)The Lighter Side: On the Up, after being so Down - The 'Toggle' Factor..? ;-)The Lighter Side: ‘Janet and John’ - PMR and the New Rheumatologist.. ;-)
