My mum has been poorly managed by Gp - decreasing steroids too quickly. Does anyone know of a good consultant in the hertfordshire area ?

[sangje]

[Hidden]

Hi Sangie,

It sounds as if your poor mum is not getting rid of the pain for very long, if at all. She must have the right care otherwise she is at risk of a serious flare or worse - GCA.

The BSR gives good guidelines for doctors to follow and also, Sharon, our Blogger from Canada, gives very good advice on how to reduce the doses of pred. and more.

If your mum is not satisfied with her treatment then she has the right to ask for a second opinion.

Pats.

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi Sangie

As Pats has said, it sounds as if you're Mum does need to be seen by a rheumatologist or at least seek a second opinion with another GP in the practice. In fact, the president of PMRGCAuk says that ideally all PMR patients should have at least one appointment with a rheumatologist. I'm sorry I'm not aware of anyone who is under a rheumatologist in the Herts area (I thought mine was brilliant but I'm in Surrey).

In the meantime, perhaps you can download the British Society of Rheumatology Guidelines for the Management of PMR from the internet and take your Mum to her GP together with the Guidelines so that he/she can read the recommended steroid reduction programme.

At least it sounds as though your Mum is blessed to have you looking out for her - good luck and do let us know how she gets on.

[sangje]

Thanks both - yes we downloaded the guidelines which were great - its just she would like to know of a good rheumatologist as she has seen some horrors for other things and apart from being soul destroying it is a big waste of time. ?We are prepared to travel to London if anyone knows good dept - on the national guidelines I noticed that some of the authors were from St Georges- has anyone been there?