Following up on a previous post of mine re tapering and beginning my treatment at 10mg, saw the new rheumy this week at Runnymead Hospital, who I found (and expected to be) pretty knowledgeable about all things PMR. Rather than up my dose, he gave me a booster shot of depamodrol so that I could stay on 10mg. He agreed with me that I’d probably started at too low a dose, in six weeks I’ll try the tapering journey again!
Female, 65, diagnosed Sept 2018, 10-9mg with hiccups
I’m glad to hear Chertsey came up trumps, I know it well having worked there and been a patient there several times.
Yep, he was so knowledgable, also confirmed that the swelling around my collar bones and back of neck were Pred side effects, much to my relief.
It seems so odd to me, as an American, to see the words "Runnymead" and "hospital" together. All I can think of when I hear Runnymead is a bunch of medieval nobles forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta in a meadow surrounded by forest.
We are still having something similar going on but it's taking place in Westminster!!!!
Do you think they might get on with things if they were sent to a field, exposed to the elements and with no dining room and bar?????
Well if there was a trough in the field a good few would turn up no doubt.
Beats the heck outta what we've gt going on over here in D.C....
Ooops, did we wander into forbidden territory again?
The area of the signing of the Magna Carta still exists and you can visit the actual place where it was signed. It is called Runnymede! In fact in the Borough of Runnymede where the hospital is.
Sounds like a good consultation, hope it works.
I would be interested to hear how effective this Prednisalone injection is and whether it did the trick? Keep us posted.
I haven’t heard of hiccups as a presenting symptom before.
I had one of those injections of depot medrol in summer 2017, it worked a treat for about a month, enabled me to enjoy my son's wedding. I was a new person for a bit, but as we had to pay privately it wasn't possible to repeat it. I was on about 25 mg of pred at the time, fo GCA as well as PMR. Waters further muddied because I found that I wasn't absorbing the coated pred I had changed to properly, so swapping to uncoated in that October enabled me to reduce to 14 very quickly, where I stuck until last October when i started on azathioprine as a steroid sparer which is, touch wood, working, now down to 9mg!
Well, so far so good— I’m feeling much better, no pain at all today, but I have taken a day off. The booster shot was given in the hope that I could stay at 10mg and not have to start the whole thing again at a higher dose, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Glad you had good consultation. I go to same rheumy and he has been very helpful.
I don’t live down there either braininjurythepits. Used to live in Surrey but now live in a village near Worcester so we travel down for each consultation. I did go privately at first but then he took me onto his NHS list.
Wow. I live in Worcestershire too! Did u still live there when he took u on as NHS.
I lived in Solihull, West Midlands when he took me on as NHS, having previously been private.
In theory we are supposed to have choice of NHS consultants ha ha. Mind you my GP referred me to Dr Sarah Mackie ( well known in PMR/ GCA field ) in Leeds although he grumbled that Sheffield Rheumatologists were good. I live in Sheffield.
Down to 2mg 
Worried about how to taper split dose
Short update
On start dose of 15 mg Pred—- best way to do first taper?
