Hi @martyn, I feel a real parallel with your situation. I was 48 when PMR came out of nowhere for me a couple of years ago and I was also terrified at the time given that I was really into cycling along with hiking and I had no clue what went wrong. Let me say you have every right to be having such strong feelings about this so don't apologize for that.

I was put on prednisone right away which relieved the pain, but like so many of us here didn't want to be on it long-term. You asked about going med-free, for me I went 3 months without meds after weaning off prednisone but it was pretty awful as my body obviously wasn't ready yet. My rheumatologist has me on Leflunomide now as I didn't want to go back on Prednisone. My CRP has been good for several months, though I do have shoulder discomfort still (2 out of 10 in terms of pain, so not bad), will be coming off meds in October and see how it goes. My rheumatologist believes PMR can be a one time thing.

I feel this is as much of an emotional journey as physical and encourage you to be really kind to yourself, to understand that you will be just as physically fit as you were, it just may be a short wait while you get through this, to seek support if needed and educate the people around you so that they can really understand and empathize with what you are going through and be there to comfort you.

I always like to think about what I may have learned from having this experience but I'm not there yet.

All of us on this forum are here for you!
Rosie