First of all I would like to introduce myself. My name is Roy and I am 78 and although I am English I now live in Adelaide, Australia.. Up until the last year or two I have had a good health run ( I realise how lucky I am ) until the dreaded PMR struck. After diagnosing myself, thanks to Dr Google, and confirming it when I found this forum. I visited my local surgery and met my new GP for the first time. She is a brilliant, warm and caring person who is not old enough to have lost her love for the job she is doing.
She put me on Prednisolone . Like many before me, I didn't realise that I had sold my soul to The Devil.
My symptoms disappeared within 24 hours but in return for that gift The Devil gave me a load more unwanted gifts including raising my Glucose levels to such a degree that I was diagnosed as having now having Type 2 Diabetes.
Like everybody else I have strengths and weaknesses but one of my strengths is willpower. Because of being lucky enough to exercise I set myself a minimum of 6,000 steps a day combined with a really strict diet. My young doctor was delighted when after 6 months she smiled and told me that I had smashed the ball out the park.
Now one of my many weakness's kicked in and I felt I was invincible . LOL
I had tapered slowly and easily from 20mg down to 7mg and kept on 7 for about 6 weeks and in all that time I had no trouble at all going for long walks and looking after my very large back garden.
I then sped up the tapering process until I got down to 5.5 mg a day ( silly boy ) then I had the dreaded flare. I upped the dose to 8 and that eased things. I stuck on that for about 6 weeks and then reduced by a half an mg every month until I reached 7mg ( which I am staying on for about 6 weeks)
I am happy and living a normal life apart from not being able to exercise half as much without paying the price the next day.
Being logical I can't work out why I was like an Olympic athlete on 7 a few months ago with NO restrictions but now I have to be careful..
However I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who have spent the time telling their stories and to the experts that have helped us all.
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Willpower1945
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Thank you Jane. I have learnt a lot from people here and I can only offer limited advice to people on most aspects of the problems. But I think the major thing I have learnt by being ruthless ( especially with the Diabetes aspect ) is that by reducing my sugar intake ( which was already low ) was simply a matter of being all about portion size. My doctor laughed when I told her that my habit of having a slice of Fruit Cake had now changed to cutting the cake into 1" cubes. I find that just a small amount like that gives me the taste of the desired object . She stopped laughing when the results of my first HB1ac ( not sure if that is what it's called exactly ) came in and she was happy enough to let me avoid the meds. My afternoon 4 squares of dark chocolate with coffee became 1 ( or none ). It's amazing how many things now taste too sweet to enjoy anymore. In fact my crowning success is to be one of the few people on Earth that can stop after 1 Malteser. lol
Is 123 - go what you say before you eat the 4th square ? Not sure if you beat me concerning Hobnobs because, before this PMR, I liked a WHOLE Dark Chocolate Digestive. I have ditched them now. I am an early riser and before my wife even wakes up I have had a cup of tea ( with half a non chocolate Digestive ) and half a non chocolate Hobknob with my first Decaf Coffee ( to try and help my Adrenal Glands ) . Lets call it a draw 😁
I can get my pleasure from looking at cakes and can stop at half a square of chocolate or like you 1 Maltesers.
My story re diabetes is the same as yours and I have been in remission for over 6 years. My diabetic nurse told me I was amazing (first time I had ever been called that) I find it so easy now to keep going on my low carb diet. Well done to you
You can't get Maltesers in France, but my one weakness is Cadbury's Roses, which I order on-line only at Christmas time because the tin of Roses is an old family Xmas tradition from many years back. The rest of the time, once you have weaned yourself of overly sweet treats, I find that the sugar-craving turns into a vague disgust at too sweet food. You eventually lose the taste.
Now I have one square of 85% chocolate with my after lunch (unsweetened) coffee and one more after my evening (light) meal. That satisfies my mild chocolate addiction.
We seem to be having a very similar experience. As for the red wine , once I found out that red wine ( in moderation ) is actually beneficial for Diabetics it was on for young and old. 😀
"I didn't realise that I had sold my soul to The Devil." ...
"Being logical I can't work out why I was like an Olympic athlete on 7 a few months ago with NO restrictions but now I have to be careful"
Ah well - pred isn't the devil, it is your reliable friend when you have PMR and it pays you use it wisely in all respects. At 7mg your PMR and your adrenal related needs were both very well managed. Now they are not so happy. You had a flare - they aren't always as easy to get over as the pred-effect at the start. And really - the lower, the slower ...
I too cut cakes into small portions - Lebkuechen cut in 4 are still on the generous side. I still had a very few Christmas goodies left this last week, Only have a few individual puds waiting for next year now, And there weren't THAT many to start with for my daughter and her partner being here for Christmas!
As usual, words of wisdom from you. I learn a lot from you and Dorset Lady. I am certainly not looking for sympathy because I caused my own ( temporary ) downfall by my own stupidity. I was drunk on my success ( at that stage ) . BUT I have learnt my lesson and in future I will think more with my brain and not my boyish enthusiasm. That is the trouble with being an 18 year old trapped inside a 78 year old's body. Although , in the right light, I can pass as 77 ( The right light being in a coal shed at midnight without a torch ) Keep up the good work. Roy
You are really not alone!! In any of those respects. I'm older than you - I admit to being 21!!! But trapped in a 71 year old body that does get the messages from the 21 year old brain ...
Wise words from a 21 year old to a, 18 year old. I certainly changed a lot in my 18 to 21 time. I was a motor bike riding freelancer playing the field at 18. At 21 I got married and was buying my first house. 😀
So did I! How things have changed! Our first "4 rooms plus kitchen and bathroom" flat in Arbroath cost us £3,900!!! Then it doubled in "value" in under 3 years thanks to Aberdeen oil. Just looked it up - still a record online, reached £70K at its peak in 2019 - but lost nearly £20K in price in 6 months and recovering now. Wish it had looked like it does now when we lived there!
Sorry about the late reply. I have had a few computer problems which I have now managed to sort out. I enjoyed hearing from you about your similar start to us. Yours when a bit more smoothly than ours though 😊 We were supposed to be moving into our brand new house immediately after our wedding, having been watching the house being built since putting a deposit down on it when I was 20. BUT life has a habit of kicking you in the n*t* and my company started to collapse ( the one where I had served my 5 year apprenticeship ) and suddenly I was unemployed and we had to pull out of buying the house and we had to scrabble around for somewhere to rent. We ended up renting the top part of a house while I went to college to train in a new job in the photographic side of the printing industry. After we moved in we found out just how weird the couple living in the lower level of the house ( the owners ) were.
We never had that sort of problem thank goodness! One thing about the NHS is it doesn't go bust! As for weird - you get that whether it is landlords in the same building (yuk!) or neighbours over the fence!
No need to apologise - it is lovely to get a reply but I never expect one unless I asked a specific question.
It's good to know a bit about people especially someone who is prepared to share. I genuinely find other people's stories and experiences interesting. I think most people have a few tales to tell and going slightly off-topic makes a welcome change. I really am sympathetic but I am luckier than a lot of people and reading the posts can be a bit depressing when you hear what a crap lives some people live.
I listed SOME of my weaknesses but enthusiasm is my default but it can become annoying for some people. So you and PM pro are both 21 and I am only 18. It seems we are all youngsters. UNTIL our bodies occasionally try and tell us otherwise. 😊
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