New to this Forum so Hello to all...... I am a 84 year married male in Australia.... Hoping one day to get rid of this disease.........
Took a couple of years to diagnose as gp didnt know any thing about it..........Took 3 or 4 years to sort out the problem and was hell in the meantime.. Never been able to get under 5 Mg (that would have done me for ever.)....however flare ups required about 15 or 20 Mg for a few weeks (or more ) .......getting back down to 10 Mg was done in a few weeks but from there down it was 1/4 Mg drop monthly. ...... Been self diagnosing for years , my Rheumy just says , you know what to do, so get on with it............ So last year i got down to 6.1/2 Mg daily after a major flare and was real crook, fatigue, headaches ,generally feeling lousy............ My GP said i think you are suffering from Adrenal insufficiency as raising the dose to 7Mg cleared cleared things up after 2 or 3 days. Then i had an MRI for an unrelated thingo , in the report it noted the adrenal glands were in a shrunken condition, so for a year now i have been alternating daily doses between 61/2 and 6.3/4 Mg (with aid of my trusty pill cutter)........ i still dont feel 100% but i am hoping this may eventually kick the adrenals into gear ,,,time will tell...... I have tried MTX and a few other things, but none were any good so, for me it is always Pred ,and always in the morning....... .I can understand newly diagnosed people not knowing what the hell is going on, and you are at the mercy of your Gp or Rheumy ,hoping they know what they are doing...... The main problem is everybody reacts differently to medication so your medical officer really is only generalising.......... Like it or not you have to finally sort out your dosages , but this only comes after a lot of heart aches......... My side effects are weight gain , a bit of moon face, skin peels of with the slightest bump , covered allover in bruises, and of corse the adrenal bit..... Could be more side effects that i am not aware of........ But thats about it , though i wouldnt be surprised if the adrenals ever start working again i may be over PMR......(hopefully)....... I am not crash hot at this computer bit so i may never see this post ever again. ........Billy...........
PMR-new pain
DMARDs for PMR
PMR for 4 years
