Prednisone love/hate support group

I have watched her videos. I owe a lot of my basic understanding to her explanations. This one is excellent and really my whole goal in being on this site to help people understand the love hate relationship with prednisone. I also think those that dismiss her message because she sells a vitamin are missing out on a very thorough explanation of the disease. I have never bought her products. Thanks Dadcue for posting.

"... my whole goal in being on this site is to help people understand the love hate relationship with prednisone."
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It is hard to communicate the love/hate relationship. People seem to love prednisone or hate prednisone. It takes a long time to learn that it is acceptable to do both at the same time.

I for one appreciate your input @tuckerp. However, I don't envy that you tapered off Prednisone with what sounds to me like sheer willpower. I had it easy by comparison.

I love how prednisone helped get rid of my pain but absolutely hated taking it and the struggle to get off of it. It is a really helpful video and easy to understand.

Last year I watched a lot of her earlier vids and unsubscribed because she so often pushed how terrible prednisone was and encouraged everyone to get off it almost at any cost. It was a bad message for me at the time as I needed to accept prednisone and be grateful that it had restored my mobility and functionality. She seems to have balanced her approach to it more recently, and this vid is good. I particularly like her explanation that the PMR needs to resolve for successful prednisone reduction - problems reducing are not always caused by steroid withdrawal or adrenal insufficiency. Let's keep our attitudes toward its use in balance.

For me, my love for Prednisone was a "short term" affair.

When Prednisone was daily and "long term" --- I started to hate Prednisone. This was especially true when it wasn't entirely clear to me that I still had PMR and I was unable to stop taking prednisone.

My remaining symptoms were similar but not exactly like my original PMR symptoms when I needed 25 mg or more to be able to lift my arms. I knew that I took Prednisone for "other reasons" which were not PMR but I didn't know what else to do. It was easier to blame PMR for everything.

I didn't come to terms with Prednisone until we parted ways. I had to be open to alternatives to Prednisone and found a way to say good-bye. It was an amiable breakup. I never believed that Prednisone was the "only option" for the treatment of PMR. I already knew that Prednisone wasn't a good long term solution for me. My rheumatologist confirmed this when he said I was too young to take Prednisone for the rest of my life. It sounded like an ageist thing to say but I knew what he meant.

I probably wouldn't be here had I not taken Prednisone. Now that I'm off Prednisone, I hope to be here for the foreseeable future. I think this has always been Dr. Megan's position too.

thank you for posting the link w/youtube

I also found her videos incredibly helpful when I first went on Prednisone in trying to understand the really hard to manage aspects of the drug side effects.

Love/ hate is epitomized in the nickname for Prednisone.

The Devil's TicTac is well named.

Dr. Megan has provided those in the PMR community a wealth of information.
In the main, she provides evidence based material.
As tempted as I have been to purchase the supplements she pushes, the supplement industry
in United States has less oversight than the drug industry and how is one
to know the efficacy of the supplements other than taking her word for the benefits.
Do double blind studies exist?
The advice and treatment therapeutics offered by trained clinicians should be limited
entirely to evidence based science and and peer reviewed treatment protocols.
Videos describing" amazing" anecdotal treatments, supplements "you cannot do without" etc., can possibly result in some unfortunate rabbit hole journeys and empty pockets.
Had she not pushed her supplements, I would have been more inclined to recommend her site to others,
as those of us with PMR have livers working overtime and adding supplements
indiscriminately can be detrimental to one's health in the longer term.
KISS principle here : read up on PMR, work with your Doc, take the medications as prescribed ,
( ask Doc what supplements are appropriate)
avoid processed food, reduce sugar, caffeine, red meat intake, eat more vegetables
(anti-inflammatory diet or Mediterranean diet),exercise, get sleep and avoid snake oil.
Cheers

Dear Dr. Megan,
Thank you so much for posting this for me and anyone else who is on long term prednisone! It was not only very educational but is actually uplifting to see and hear your explanation of how it works and why we need to taper. I certainly learned some of this from my rheumatologist but not with your kind of passion and delivery. I am looking forward to seeing you again when you are live to answer questions for us. Thank you again! Btw, how do we know your schedule for live q and a?
Tim H (Heals1225)