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He might be right. I am 86 so it doesn’t matter that much that I stay on prednisone. I just had my bone density test done and it’s fine.
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Replies to "He might be right. I am 86 so it doesn’t matter that much that I stay..."
If Prednisone works for you ... I wouldn't tell you not to take prednisone. I try not to say Actemra will work for everyone because I know it won't be the best thing for everyone.
I was told NOT to try Actemra when it was first suggested to me by my rheumatologist. It was mostly a person who said she was "entitled" to know things about PMR and prednisone that nobody truly knows. She encouraged me to take more prednisone and routinely gave medical advice. She said prednisone was the best and only option for PMR. Her claim to fame was long term prednisone use and PMR for about the same period of time as me.
My rheumatologist countered her assertions by saying that I wouldn't know if Actemra works until I tried it to see and offered no guarantees that Actemra would work. I'm glad I tried Actemra to see if it works for me and I'm happy to have tapered off prednisone.
That was just my personal decision and currently how I feel. Prednisone is still an option in the future if Actemra stops working. I still have a prednisone prescription "as needed" that my rheumatologist wrote for me.
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I had a bone density scan that was read as "normal." My lumbar spine had a ridiculously high t-score of +5. The surgeon who ordered the bone scan said there was a lot of bone in the area of my lumbar spine but it probably wasn't "good bone." Apparently arthritis causes falsely high readings on Dexa scans.
The surgeon was going to remove much of the excess bone and fuse my lumbar spine. He wanted to evaluate whether or not I had enough "good bone structure" to hold all the hardware that would be needed to fuse my lumbar spine.
The surgeon was reluctant to proceed with surgery because I was taking prednisone and couldn't come off prednisone. Ironically, the pain was so severe I got desperate and took 60 mg of prednisone. The pain was relieved and surgery was postponed.
The surgeon insists that I still need a lumbar fusion. Actemra won't be an issue if I can skip my Actemra infusion during the month that I decide to do the surgery. I could probably skip a month but I don't have enough pain to do the surgery. I don't want to do the surgery anymore.