I agree with everything said about “normal”ESR stats, they don’t exist.
I was diagnosed with PMR in 2014 and started on 10mg of prednisone. While on the same dosage, I started developing symptoms of GCA and my ESR was only 29. I knew all the symptoms because I worked in Ophthalmology and saw patients who lost sight due to not realizing they were sick and did not get treated.
My PCP argued with me that I couldn’t have GCA because of my normal ESR, and because I was already on prednisone. After a few weeks I finally told him I didn’t want to go blind, so he sent me to a Rheumatologist. The Rheumatologist argued the same thing but consented to order a temporal artery biopsy. It came back positive! He now treats me for my symptoms and not the blood test results.