@retiredphil and all... Thanks, Phil. This is a crazy, nasty autoimmune disease. I have others, as I'm sure most on this site do as well. Sarcoidosis, PMR. GCA, Vasculitis, Arthritis, etc... Began when I was 40 years old with Sarcoid, naturally with no understanding of the illness, why I had it or got it, and was diagnosed with a lung biopsy at Mayo soon after the Jacksonville Clinic opened. I said they came to Jacksonville to help me! Pretty self-absorbed, eh? Well, they kind of did. I was a pretty sick puppy then with a young son I was raising and who had soccer games and lots of mothering I needed to accomplish. I worked full-time, was divorced and quite active. No time for this nonsense, Sarcoid! It wasn't a pleasant illness either, quite debilitating and kind of knocked me off my feet. Then, of course the high dose long-term, 8-9 months, of Prednisone and all that brought to my body. So, it was challenging. But, finally did go into remission.

I suppose, after we experience an auto-immune disease, we are never quite the same. Our body is on guard for another hit from somewhere unknown, and the damage to our body from the medications begins. Continues the rest of our lives. At least, this is my experience.

I'm 79 years old now and frankly would have loved to not learn about either PMR or GCA, or Vasculitis for that matter. But, acceptance of these interesting attacks from nowhere is my latest challenge, which I must constantly work to improve. I now have fairly good acceptance of what is, living this day with gratefulness for the day, but a PMR flare does present many challenges.

I hope you and others here are doing well with this. It sounds as though some folks stay in remission for a fairly long time... perhaps never have to deal with it a 2nd time. They are truly blessed. I think 2 Covid infections in 2023 were too much for my body to handle with the multiple unknowns from Covid. And so it goes...
Blessings to all... Elizabeth