One day Last October 2025 I woke up and couldn’t roll over to get out of bed. With help I did get up and could walk about but was unable to bend it lift. It was shocking! I’d had a traumatizing year or two, but I didn’t yet attribute it to this debilitating morning that I woke up and my body stopped working.
GP says it’s PMR and I see Rheumatologist. I was 3 months away from being 65 and knew nothing about PMR, had never experienced anything like it, and had never even heard about it. Started 10 mg Prednisone and was instantly cured and started on reducing doses down to zero in 8 months. During that time I learned everything I could and grew to hate PMR and Prednisone. So I tapered. The disability returned but wasn’t too too serious. I’m managing. I manage and do not take anything for it. I have moderate discomfort and weakness that moves around in my body from shoulders to knees to fingers to hips to even feet and eyes. I’m not treating my PmR. I can walk briskly, can do stairs carefully, I really enjoy swimming and it took me months to be able to actually rotate my arms to do the crawl stroke. I read people do keep a stash of prednisone in case they want to treat their pain or immobility, but I want to stay med free. I wonder if inflammation damages my body from the difficulty getting moving and still don’t want to take Prednisone.
I appreciate I have no pain when I’m not moving, but one of my worst symptoms and complaints is how disabled my legs are when I first stand up from sitting or driving. I stand and the legs from the hips to the ankles take a moment to get strength. It’s weird but I’m thankful I’m moving about 80-90% normal and not taking any medication. I don’t have any lingering pain, just a lack of strength and a tightness and deep discomfort upon getting everything going. I’m motivated not to take meds so I have to gently work my mobility back into play each time that I’m inactive for a period of time. Also I’ve tried to decipher if any foods, too much alcohol or zero, over exercising or deep relaxing techniques, etc etc, if anything makes a difference…and it doesn’t! So I’m living my best life. Can’t beat stress because there’s a lot to deal with in life but otherwise I guess I have to accept I have an inflammatory condition. 🌹