My PMR story is long and rather sad since I took prednisone for more than 12 years to treat PMR. I can't honestly say that Prednisone gave me a better "quality of life" although it did help the pain. I went into PMR rating my 'overall health" as excellent. After 12 years of PMR and daily prednisone, I rated my overall health as "poor." I didn't want to live much longer and I was only 65. I was thinking 5 years of retirement and I would call it quits and probably go into a nursing home.

I'm now 70 and my bucket list is getting longer. I'm traveling and thinking about what else I can do. In my opinion, the "rate your pain from 1 to 10 scale" doesn't tell the whole story of having PMR and being on long term prednisone.

After Actemra was started, I was able to taper off prednisone. I now have tolerable pain without any pain medications. My rheumatologist says Actemra isn't a pain medication and only treats the inflammation.

In any case, I now rate my overall health as "good and getting better." This is a subjective rating but there is objective evidence too. I have been able to discontinue Prednisone AND almost all my other medications that were basically treating my prednisone side effects or preventing side effects from happening.

I was regularly going to the ER and being admitted into the hospital. My referrals to various specialists were increasing. Now, I just see my rheumatologist every 6 months.

Unfortunately, my inflammation markers increase whenever I go too long between Actemra infusions. I haven't been able to discontinue Actemra but I have minimal if any side effects from Actemra so far. I still worry about the long term effects of Actemra but nobody seems to know what happens in the long term. Technically, I still have PMR.