Telephone consultation with Prof Dasgupta today. He was very unhappy with the higher dose of steroid I've had to increase to and wants me to get down using what he called a 'clinically recommended' taper....12.5, 10, 7.5. So, dropping 2.5mg every 4-6wks again. He also was certain after a lot of questioning that the aches and pains I was experiencing at 2.5mg were adrenal related and now, are pred related. Talked about amitriptyline again but I refused. I don't need it....I'm sleeping fine. So.... I'm now somewhat bemused by it all.
A quick update: Telephone consultation with Prof... - PMRGCAuk
A quick update
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Kendrew
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DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer
We all know that’s the clinically recommended taper - but we also know from experience it doesn’t always work.
He may have been correct that issues at 2.5mg were Pred related, but you won’t know until you get there again....but can’t see how they are Pred related at a higher dose.
Pred masks most pains not enhances them. No wonder you’re bemused.
Any advice if taper goes to rats? Technical term 😳
I think because I had some issues when on those higher doses previously that were linked to withdrawal and occurred after each taper, he's made some kind of 'connection' there maybe. Not quite sure what though. I should have asked, but telephone conversations are so unhelpful and unproductive.
I think as the last previous dose that worked for me was 7.5....adrenals might have been issue when I began to taper down from there. (didn't know that initially at the time though) When I mentioned about recommendation to go up to 5mg above previous successful dose....he came across as being quite scathing and said advice on this forum came with no medical endorsements. Whether it does or doesn't.....it's still based on legitimate experiences of what works and what doesn't for people! I was a little surprised at how annoyed he seemed at me. He even said he was going to let me just get on with it and he would be recording it in my notes.....like I was being punished! That had changed by end of conversation though as I felt I had to apologise to him for not doing as he'd instructed and he then seemed back on board. I know he was concerned about the dangers of higher doses of steroids and emphasised this repeatedly, but it has all left me in a quandary as I said. Wants to speak to me in 6months!!
Watch this space!
The "add 5mg to the dose where the flare occurred" may be advice he perceives as being from the forum. But we are just the messengers - it is a recommendation from experts in the field throughout the world. Though it does seem quite clear to me that if any advice or findings comes from outside the UK, it isn't seen as valid.
I am not in the least surprised at the reception you got.
I was expecting some repercussions from taking control of things myself, but wasn't expecting to be made to feel like an errant child! It hasn't changed my opinion one bit regarding the importance and value of this forum though!
Funny, because when I quite UK doctors to my Rheumy here in the USA, he just laughs and says they do things very differently “over there”!
In the context of PMR and GCA there aren't actually that many different options and the guidelines are drawn up by the ACR (USA) and EULAR (Europe)! There are some doctors in the USA who quote something very similar to the Dead Slow approach to tapering and others who have been approached by patients are agreed it is a good idea.
Do it as differently as you like - but the role of the doctor in PMR in particular is to manage their patients' pain and symptoms to allow a good Quality Of Life since there is no cure. Even tocilizumab isn't a cure although it is thought that it does induce the underlying cause to burn out in some way. If a doctor isn't doing that, they are failing the patient.
Ha I had the same conversation with him” so you’re back to where you started then !”😰 I imagine he suggested such a fast taper as you’d only been at the higher dose a short time? He usually recommends a slower taper . I worked out my own taper with the help of this amazing forum, doing the DSNS when I got to 8mg and now reducing by 1/2mg at a time from 6 onwards. Good luck.
Thankyou Maisiek. Yes....I intend to follow his taper regime to 7.5 as this did actually work first time around and then I too will follow the DSNS taper regime. Quite reassuring to hear you experienced similar with him. Sometimes I feel like I'm just a 'guinea pig'!
You can still do a DSNS Taper but it maybe be a bit more jumpy but dropping from 12.5mg->10mg can make you feel like 🤯 anyway.
Ok. Thankyou for that info.
I do my taper over 3weeks & then the last week is ‘The New Dose’ so when they ask/tell me to reduce by Xmg per month, it’s the same difference......
I’m a 0.5mg a month reduction gal now, l’m back on full dose MTX (25mg) so starting the slow reduction from 13.5mg just hitting 13mg this weekend......
Good Luck 🍀
Thankyou. Good luck to you too.
The other thing you could do is drop 0.5mg every week ie 2.5mg in 5weeks...
Maybe less stress on your body & achieve the same result?
Thankyou. I like that idea. Appreciate yours and everyone elses input. Really helps.
It would be so much less stress on your body & do read up about Amitriptyline as some Doctors recommend it when decreasing the Pred to help, l’m not convinced that it does but it certainly works for painful shoulder muscles & helps you to get a more relaxed sleep 😴
He did seem very keen to put me on it but to be honest I do actually sleep ok and my levels of muscle and joint aches doesn't really impact on what I can and can't do pain wise. It's more physical fatigue if that makes sense? I certainly won't rule amitriptyline out but don't feel I need to add to my cocktail of drugs further just yet. I will definitely do some reading up on it though. Thankyou.
There are some doctors who are so sure they know better what pred does to the patient than the patient themself! Pred at 15mg doesn't stop me sleeping - my bad nights have other causes and they are irregular.
My fatigue is a quite specific thing - lack of motivation in some ways, an inertia that simply doesn't let me summon up the energy to do something and feeling as if I've already done loads when I haven't. But even that doesn't express it properly.
That's a good attempt though!....and very much the kind of description of some of my experience of fatigue although there is a definite physical/motor aspect to it too.
In what way? This is intriguing - we may be able to get through to them! Have you seen the 15 sorts of fatigue post? I haven't compared it with the original to see what she has added!
info.sjogrens.org/conquerin...
I had read this before, but I don't recall the two additional ones at the end..... 'Fatigue that comes from being with family and friends who don't have the disease', and 'Doctor Fatigue'. I feel my fatigue is predominantly akin to the first 3.....Basic, Rebound and Sudden....all involving limitations on physical assertions. But my fatigue definitely has elements of some of the others too.
I think it’s a combination of the slightly numbing ongoing fatigue, even when we have a ‘can do’ day, and the fact that our heads are always in advance of our bodies and we feel younger than we are! 😅
A friend said last night "why don't our minds feel older?" ...
Oh yes! Perfect!
PMRproAmbassador
Have to ask - what is clinically recommended about dropping 2.5mg below 10mg? ALL the reduction schedules I am familiar with say 1mg at a time below 10mg and it is also said that tapering at more than 1mg/month is predictive of flares.
Good point.....and his name is on the recommendation is it not!
I so wish I'd known that before I spoke to him!! How strange that he's not advocating something he's recommended!
This is why they have us so confused!!!!! Even my own rheumy did a U turn on a previous conversation to the point I just sat there trying to get my head to take in what he was saying while panicking at the same time cos I didn't want to go down the road he was now going!!!! Hope your taper goes ok for you, best of luck .
Just to stick my oar in 
I have taken Amitriptyline for many years. The sub-theraputic dose, as they call it, is used for lots of reasons. IBS, migraine and nerve pain being the main reasons. I remember thinking when I was first given this "anti-depressant" that I was being robbed off. However after several years of taking a low dose, 10mg, I can safely say that this drug is beneficial. I take my dose at 7pm as I have found that helps me with pain relief and doesn't give me a "hangover" the following day. Because I have degenerative disc disease with some nerve involvement I now take 50mg at night which has helped me to get comfortable at night. I do have a weird sleep pattern where I may not sleep until 3am but I do sleep well when I do drop off. I am four years into PMR and on 5mg of prednisolone. I am in Essex but not one of the Professor's patients. I am lucky to have found a Rheumatologist in Broomfield hospital who looks after me very well
Yes Sandy, me too, it really helps with shoulder pain especially if the shoulders are tight & knotted! And, it’s way beneath the dose for antidepressant use, god knows how the patients ever used to wake up when they were on the full dose!....
Who do you see please cos I'm not far from chelmsford!
This could be an odd question, has anyone suggested a Synacthen test, now you are way below 5mg? Just to see if your adrenal glands have woken up and a starting to work?
Yes....it was prof Dasgupta. As you said.....he wasn't easy to access for advice and I couldn't even get my gp surgery to answer the telephone at the time.....let alone book a telephone consultation with a GP! So, I had to take control and do something! It will have been right in some people eyes and wrong in others and although I try and weigh up all the information and advice I receive from all the different sources, ultimately, it's my body and my decision to opt for the choices that seem best. I know I won't probably get it right all of the time though. Thankyou for your input.
‘Ultimately it’s my body and my decision to opt for the choices that seem best’. And that neatly sums it up. That’s the bottom line. 🌺
When I had my first consultation with my Rheumatologist back in January 2018 we had a very thorough discussion which included my refusal to take Alendronic Acid. It all culminated in him saying to me "I am the consultant and you are the patient. if you don't do as I say you can find another Rheumatologist" I just looked straight in the eye and said "Mr Xxxx, that's not a very nice thing to say. I thought we were having a meaningful clinical discussion about my treatment. Seems I was mistaken". He wrote on my notes; patient is a Pharmacist and refuses AA. He was seeing me every 4 months because of ?GCA with PMR. I haven't been recalled for over a year. I don't let it bother me now because I was getting myself in such a state prior to seeing him it affected my health.
I would have found another rheumatologist - one who didn't feel threatened by a sensible discussion with a fellow healthcare professional who was aware of the other side of the bisphosphonate story.
That's so interesting to hear yet another similar attitude to the one I experienced. When I told my rheumatologist I wasn't prepared to start taking amitriptyline again because I wasn't manifesting the issues he said they'd alleviate, he didn't put on my notes, that we'd discussed it and agreed they weren't necessary at the present time.......he simply wrote.... 'Patient refused Amitriptyline'. Makes me come across as arrogant and I truly don't think I am. At least I hope I don't come across as that! I feel his reaction was rather similar to that of a petulant child!
'the aches and pains I was experiencing at 2.5mg were adrenal related' . Adrenal problems are more like overwhelming fatigue, dizziness, nausea. Aches and pains are more likely due to PMR and inflammation, IMHO. If he thinks they are adrenal related he should be sending you for a synacthen test.
Well, that's what I thought, but I guess I was just bowing to his greater knowledge!! It's so challenging trying to navigate a path through all the misinformation and ambiguities that pour out of the mouths of 'experts' who you should be able to trust.
It is indeed, I have suffered a major setback through a rheumatologist forcing me to reduce my dose according to a schedule even though I protested, and I'm now in a right mess as inflammation has built up again. SOME rheumatologists and their fixed ideas are often the cause of, rather than the solution to our problems. But that is the way the system works, they cannot suggest something unless it has been 'proven'. And nothing is 'proven' because it hasn't been researched. It's so frustrating.
I'm sorry to hear of your current situation and hope you manage to get things under control again soon. It is actually reassuring though to hear that even someone like yourself....with your extensive knowledge and experience.....can also struggle to persuade medical professionals that there might be a better way forward for you, than the one theyre suggesting! It shouldn't have to be this hard should it?
That's kind of you to say, thank you. I'm very lucky in several respects. My rheumatologist is Sarah Mackie now (I switched back to her after the last debacle with her colleague) who is absolutely amazing and one of a rare breed of doctor who likes to listen and learn and wants to help. Also as you say, my knowledge and experience helps me ask the right questions and not be fobbed off. I try asking questions rather tha stating what I know. Often the answer is 'we don't know' and I'd much rather have that tbh than a wrong answer.
Except he has never had PMR, never taken pred and never had to taper off it.
You know the fixed taper plan mentioned in the EULAR guidance etc, where did the evidence come from that it actually worked? How did it become divine knowledge amongst rheumatologists? Seems far too much like convenience than reality that the severity of a disease like PMR dies down by a fixed amount per month. In fact, the guidelines stress they are only guidelines and you need to be flexible. Yet here is one of the writers of those guidelines disagreeing with his own work as others have pointed out.
Exactly. A fixed taper is OK for some people for some time - but I suspect that when patients go back and say they can't manage it, the blame is put on them. And the old chestnut of "all in your pretty little head" raises its head - remember most patients are women and until relatively recently probably of a lower educational level than their mainly male consultants.
Thank goodness for the grass-roots revolution of patients arming themselves with knowledge and helping each other out, things are changing, even if slowly.
We have to also remember that Prof Dasgupta is 'one of the good guys' and very supportive of the Charity, he teaches us a lot too
I know you're right. He just baffles me sometimes. 🙂
Agree!
Even the experts don't always get everything right, and that is partly because still so little is known about PMR and GCA and even what lies between the two. There's no excuse for some doctors assuming they do know it all though, when a better answer is 'we don't know'. Educating doctors on how best to treat these baffling illnesses and instigating areas of relevant research has to be a priority for PMRGCAuk, not to kow-tow to prevailing 'wisdom'.
I agree. But some doctors aren’t prepared to say “I don’t know” - whether they see it as a sign of weakness I’m not sure...but nobody can know absolutely everything about anything. So why not say - “I’m sorry I don’t know...not enough research”...”I’ll see if I can find out” .. or whatever applies...
If you are a god, you always know!! 🧠🧠🧠
😄😄Haha!.......but are we not Goddesses??😄
Certainly we are.....and Viking ones at that....so take no prisoners! Just in case you haven’t seen - might amuse, healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...
Loved it. Well....I've been a natural blue eyed blonde all my life and remained a platinum blonde till menopause when it became more honey blonde. I give it a little help now to hide the greys!! So maybe I have some genetic link, who knows!! I've just done an online quiz/survey to tell me which Viking goddess I'm associated with....and its come up with Freya too! Apparently, we ride a chariot pulled by 2 cats...Purrfect!😂
Don’t often pull rank - but sorry - already taken! 😉. See profile
You need to earn your stripes- might let you be a deputy!
HAHAHA. 😂 Fair enough! I will relinquish all entitlement and say "All hail mighty Freya". Perhaps I'll just stick to 'Heather'!😂😂
You are learning quick!..and I prefer Freyja 😉 .. just so you know.
Ooops! Sorry. Had not noticed the spelling. I quite like the profile for Hlín....Goddess of protection and refuge from harm. If I could choose, it would be her. I'm quite a nurturing person who likes to 'look after' and care for people. Probably why I became a nurse in the early days! Viking goddess or not.....we're strong people, and stronger collectively. Thankyou again to you and the others for your reliable information and for always being available. All hail Freyja!🙂🙂
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