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Newly diagnosed and confused about the goal
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Sep 17 10:59am | Replies (68)Comment receiving replies
I just did my first post but it was due to yours (cj762) that I felt like tossing in my 2 cents.
You asked a good question: what is the goal?
It is my understanding that long-term use of prednisone is not desirable, so the goal is to reduce the dose to as low as possible. I think it means we each weigh the benefits of the prednisone against its negative side effects (bone loss, increased cataracts, etc.). Being in chronic pain is not good for us either. So it seems to be a choice, to reach a level of comfort that is tolerable and doesn't interfere with our daily activities. Knocking out the pain completely may be wonderful, but we must not forget that there is a cost to using prednisone . Each of us will need to struggle with this conundrum.
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@bindie I would modify the definition of the goal to be remaining pain free while reducing the prednisone to the lowest possible dosage. Prednisone is not a root cause treatment for PMR. It does not address root cause it is a symptomatic treatment. Simply said the goal is to remain pain free while you let PMR burn it's self out.
Even the steroid sparing drugs like Actemra, Tyenne and Kevzara are symptomatic drugs and do not address root cause. In reality the medical world does not know exactly what the root cause is, what they do understand is PMR causes inflammation and so they use anti-inflammatories to stop the inflammation from hanging around causing pain and possibly damage.