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I want to go that route. I tried twice to go from 10 to 7.5 after 2 weeks (I could deal with that, but it wasn't great), then two weeks to 5, and that's when I couldn't handle it. so I'm back to 10. My appointment is in 3 weeks, and I hope she will let me get into a slower taper-1mg at a time. Anyway, I also made a consultation appointment for a second opinion with a rheumatologist, with whom I have come into contact through my expert witness work. he handles a lot of really obscure autoimmune cases. Of course, he is in Beverly Hills, and I'm paying $500 out of pocket for him to review my records, talk to me, and let me know his opinion on diagnosis and treatment. My Rheumy here still says I may have serum negative RA but I have zero signs of it and my onset and symptoms are classic PMR. Sigh. Thanks for letting me vent a bit.
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It isn't as easy as one would think to distinguish between seronegative RA and PMR. They both respond to prednisone so that isn't diagnostic.
Seronegative RA, spondyloarthritis (SpA) as well as elderly onset RA can all mimic PMR and vice versa. Patients with late-onset SpA frequently present with PMR-like features, such as pain and stiffness in the shoulders and hip girdles, unexplained constitutional symptoms, and high levels of acute phase reactants at the beginning of the disease.
Why does your rheumatologist suspect seronegative RA?
To make things more complicated, it is quite possible to have both PMR and any combination of the above disorders. The overlapping features of autoimmune disorders in general are hard to differentiate. There is no consensus on what PMR is or the various types of inflammatory arthritis. There are a variety of ways that people experience the onset of PMR so that complicates things even more.