I continued exercising after PMR was diagnosed. Prednisone made that possible. I took extra Prednisone just so I could exercise. I remember taking 30 mg of Prednisone before doing a 30 mile bicycle ride.

The exercise came to an abrupt end. I was gaining weight and becoming progressively more short of breath with minimal exercise. I was actually doing a 30 mile bicycle ride when I hit the proverbial wall. I didn't have any chest pain but my pulse was extremely irregular. I was lying in a ditch for a long time with critters crawling all over me before I could get off the ground again. I don't recall how I was able to get home. I think someone in a pickup truck put my bicycle in the back and took me home.

That was a long time ago so my memory is fuzzy. I remember telling my primary care doctor about the incident and he did an EKG. That was when left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was discovered . The amazing thing was, about a year prior to this, my primary care doctor did an exercise tolerance test and everything was normal. I was miffed with the "normal" exercise tolerance test because I knew it wasn't normal for me. I refused a pulmonary function test since my exercise tolerance was normal.

Things deteriorated rapidly when I couldn't exercise. I continued to gain weight even when I stopped eating almost everything.