How was it that you had Prednisone available after you diagnosed yourself?

When I was diagnosed with PMR, I didn't have any Prednisone to take. I took Prednisone countless times prior to being diagnosed with PMR. I didn't bother with diagnosing myself. My wife made me go to her primary care doctor. My wife was the one who told her primary care doctor about all the Prednisone I took before this. I just wanted a prescription for Prednisone and I didn't care about a diagnosis.

I can laugh about it now but I had to beg for some Prednisone. I had limited success but I managed to get some Prednisone to tide me over until I could be seen by a rheumatologist. I wasn't successful at rationing the Prednisone so I had to beg for some more.

My first rheumatologist pointed to my history of reactive arthritis and uveitis and was adamant that reactive arthritis wasn't treated with Prednisone. She wanted me to taper off prednisone. I was praying for a flare of uveitis because I knew my ophthalmologist would prescribe Prednisone. Uveitis didn't happen again until I finally got off Prednisone 12 years later.

I was a certifiable mess for six months because Prednisone was restricted. I didn't seek a second opinion but a different rhteumatologist saw me at one of my follow-up visits. The first rheumatologist had already called me noncompliant with tapering off Prednisone, I was happy to talk to another rheumatologist.

The second rheumatologist "requested" that I stop taking Prednisone and come back to see her in a week or two. I did the best I could. I was off Prednisone for a day or two before my next visit. For some reason I was diagnosed with PMR. I asked what happened to my diagnosis of reactive arthritis. The rheumatogist said it was "unfortunate" that I had PMR in addition to reactive arthritis.

I still have a dual diagnosis of PMR and Reactive arthritis along with other things. I had the same rheumatiologist for 15 years. She said I needed prednisone but she tried everything she could think of to get me off Prednisone or decrease my "steroid burden." Eventually my rheumatologist called everything "systemic inflammation" and "chronic steroid use."

I once asked my rheumatolgist if Prednisone caused PMR. She said "probably not" but my immune system was deranged! My interpretation of that comment was "maybe."