Gray dolphin is the gray ghost erroneously posted.

[thegrayghost]

My post was expunged before I finished

[piglette]

That happens to me every so often, I think I hit something on the right hand side of the screen. Really annoying.

[thegrayghost in reply to piglette]

Thanks piglette, my patience and tolerance has disappeared. I want to Say thanks as this blog has been very helpful as I can identify with you all. In

2018 a rheumatologist diagnosis was fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis. Due to

Conflicts of scheduling my extreme pains was an emergency gallbladder surgery. Going forward I continued to seek help with the Fibromyalgia, there was none. I was referred to a DO doctor whose practice was Rehabilition therapy. On the first visit he spent an extended amount of time discussing my issues. August 2020 - Then scheduled an EMG blood tests etc. which showed inflammation. Started prednisone 15 mg. Today it’s 71/2.

It’s not working I am waiting his response.

My pain doctor recommended Lyrica for Fibro. Seems to help allows me to sleep at night. Trying to control PMR pain issues seems impossible.

Again THANKS TO YOU ALL I NO LONGER FEEL SO ALL ALONE.

[piglette in reply to thegrayghost]

I think a lot of us have some harrowing stories about out meetings with some members of the medical profession!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to thegrayghost]

"My pain doctor recommended Lyrica for Fibro. Seems to help allows me to sleep at night. Trying to control PMR pain issues seems impossible."

I'd say it was the other way round - there is little effective treatment/management for fibro pain. PMR pain can be managed well for most patients by using an adequate dose of pred. Every patient is different and while one person may be OK on 7.5mg another will not - and it does vary over time. It took me 4 years before I could get much below 10mg/day for any time without a return of pain. When you started on 15mg did you get significant pain relief? If not, were you tried at 20mg or even 25mg? (The 2015 recommendations for management of PMR say the lowest effective dose in the range 12.5 to 25mg pred/day). You won't improve the pain without enough pred to start with - and if it isn't HIGHER than you need at the outset you won't get a good result, you will constantly be playing catch-up.

[thegrayghost in reply to PMRpro]

I understand what you’re saying about the prednisone starting range and agree. My doctor seems hesitant to increase the dose when I explained how much pain I continued to have. I sent for Kate Gilbert’s book to be aware of what I am dealing with. Sharing of information and reading the posts has been very helpful. Now to share this with the doctors what kind of appropriate approach will work?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to thegrayghost]

This is the link to the Recommendations I mentioned:

rheumatology.org/Portals/0/...

The actual recommendations start at p6 and Rec 3 is relevant to the starting dose.

This is an outline of a management plan provided by an expert rheumatology group to allow GPs to look after patients better without constant recourse to a specialist:

rcpe.ac.uk/sites/default/fi...

Like all recommendations they mention the importance of adapting a taper regimen to suit the individual patient. That ranges from the starting dose - which must be high enough to get a good response but not too high so as to confuse the issue - to the rate of tapering which must be one to suit the patient. Some can manage bigger steps down than others with a range of factors in play there too.