I think much was learned from people in the past who had RA and were treated with prednisone. I'm grateful for those people simply because they were the ones who went through the research trials until better options were eventually found.

I don't know what to think about the current state of research into better treatment options for people with PMR. The idea of taking prednisone and waiting until PMR burns itself out seems somewhat obsolete to me. I understand the reasons why I took prednisone for as long as I did. However, I seriously doubt some cases of PMR will ever burn out entirely.

PMR seems exactly like what I was told originally about reactive arthritis. I was told reactive arthritis could be short-lived and only happen once, it could start recurring and god forbid, it could become chronic.

Even people with the various types of spondyloarthritis have benefited of the experiences of people with RA. The treatment is basically the same as RA. I don't know why Humira didn't work for me and for now at least, Actemra does work. I guess the trial and error approach to treatment is still the only approach. Either that, or many people with PMR have inflammatory arthritis or possibly both.

The problem is that most of these complex maladies aren't well defined. Any diagnosis seems to be nothing more than an "educated guess." I just don't want prednisone to dictate every aspect of my life any longer than it has already.