Briefly I had head pains and tender scalp for 5 weeks or so which did not respond to ordinary painkillers. It got so bad the out of hours GP said I should go to A&E. My bloods were normal and I was prescribed 40mg of pred for 3 days and told to go to visit my GP. (Forgot to say I have been on pred since Dec 2016 for PMR and was down to 2mg).

The headache went after a day so went to see GP who was a locum. She was very rude and dismissive saying she didn't think it was GCA - which she was looking up on computer and reading symptoms aloud whilst I sat there. She asked me what I wanted her to do? I said obviously I didn't want to have to take high dose pred but equally I didn't want to lose my sight. She gave me 2 weeks supply of 40mg pred and a referral to a rheumatologist. She said she had met loads of women who thought they had PMR and wanted to be on steroids!

I was unsure what to do so phoned optician who saw me straight away. He seemed knowledgeable and did a thorough examination and said eyes showed no signs and he thought I hadn't got GCA. So at his suggestion I took 5mg for 3 days and then went back to 2mg and didn't increase to 40mg.

I have slowly reduced to 1mg now and shall stay on this dose for a couple of months if all goes well. My next question is do (if I am Ok) just stop or reduce to alternative days?

Sorry for long post your advice is always appreciated.