After four months I have my (10 minute?) appointment with the rheumy on Thursday.
I have made these notes as a basis to help me get my thoughts across to him and yourselves.
I am male, age 81. Symptoms started mid-Jan 2023.
I have had no pain symtoms since the first dose of pred, which was 15mg on 25th May.
I was tapering on a decrease of 2 then 1 per month, but stopped on 24th Oct as told to by the rheumy and have been on 5mg since then. Initially after stopping the tapering I had mood swings and fatigue but these stopped three months ago. My only current symptoms are those of blepharitis and possibly on-off blurred vision in my right eye, but these could be unrelated to PMR.
I feel I am having some side-effects from the pred- hunger and "active bladder" being the most noticeable.
My CRP was "less than 0.5mg/dl on 28/2/24,24/10/23 and 25/6/23
My ESR was 40 on 8/5/23, 12 on 25/6/23 19 on 24/10/23 and 16 on 28/2/24
I feel I am having the PMR mildly as my intial pain symptoms were not severe. I am therefore willing to take a chance as to whether a flare arises.
I would like to continue tapering by 0.5mg every four weeks from now and ask the rheumy if I can do this.
What does anyone think please?