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@lindapc

Hello, I was diagnosed with PMR nearly a year ago.I woke one morning not being able to move very well in my shoulders and neck, by the next day I could hardly move, turning in bed was a mission as my hips and thighs felt like a dead weight and it was difficult to get comfortable. After trips to have xrays and scans I then had blood test to show the inflammation was very high and then was diagnosed with PMR. I was started on 20mg of Prednisone which gave me almost immediate relief. My symptoms have never completely gone away even on the higher dose, I still have different levels of pain in my shoulders, neck and collarbone. My mood has changed to being very reactive and easily upset and I have also put on around 6 kilos with the addition of the moon face. I also have bouts of intensive sweating, to begin with this was just at night but now happens at random times. I have reduced my dose to 4mg and my symptoms have become worse, I do not want to increase my dosage as I really want to get off this horrible drug. It is nice to be able to read your comments and have someone to feel normal with. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

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Replies to "Hello, I was diagnosed with PMR nearly a year ago.I woke one morning not being able..."

Hello @lindapc, welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Thank you for sharing your story. My first occurrence of PMR lasted 3 years. I was able to gradually taper my dosage down but the last 6 months I was going between 1 mg and 1/2 mg dosage of prednisone. I did have some pain when lowering the dosages but if it was tolerable I tried to stay on the lower dose. One of the things that helped me was to maintain some sort of mild exercise to keep the stiffness away or at least at a minimum. I too had a lot of weight gain with my first occurrence of PMR - about 50 to 60 pounds. It does require some lifestyle changes to keep from gaining extra weight.

Have you discussed the new sweating symptoms with your doctor? I did not have the sweating with my occurrences of PMR but it is one of the known symptoms.
https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/muscle-bone-and-joints/conditions/polymyalgia-rheumatica