Having been diagnosed by my GP with PMR almost 2 years ago, then referred to rheumatologist after suspected GCA (later thought unlikely) I have tapered down from 40mg of pred. However rheumatologist says she still doesn’t know what she is treating, despite classic PMR symptoms and responding well to pred. She suspects spondyloarthritis with polymyalgic presentation. She has had me reduce the pred quicker than I would have preferred, and added in an anti inflammatory (first Naproxen and now etoricoxib) to help me off the pred. She then booked me in for an MRI scan of spine and pelvis prior to which I had to be on no meds for 4 days. I almost seized up by the time of the scan: raging pain in thighs and hips and in shoulders, upper arms and neck.
I won’t get the results for another month and have the follow up appointment with rheumatologist in mid May. I have to continue taking the anti inflammatory but it seems not to be working as well as it did and at first every other day did give just enough relief, now daily 60mg isn’t really helping that much. I still have some pred left over and keep eying it up and am tempted to have a crash course of 5mg for a week but probably not wise. I am still getting bad fatigue when overdoing things, and have been trying to take it easy but so hard when life and work gets in the way. I was hoping that PMR would eventually disappear but worried these other autoimmune inflammatory arthritic conditions I may have are more permanent. I hate taking meds and do all I can to eat the right diet, gentle exercise etc etc. Any thoughts, advice or similar experiences wise people? I have found this forum so informative and helpful and really thought I was controlling the disease.