Good morning. PMR is anew diagnosis for me. I have had low back issues for a long time...not unexpected after years of working as an RN and tending to livestock on our farm. But things got dramatically worse about a year ago. I went to an orthopedic clinic and after a 7 day course of prednisone and 4 weeks of physical therapy things were worse. MRI showed spinal stenosis and degeneration of facet joints. I was referred for spinal injections. The first experience with this was awful..I won't go into details, but decided to end my relationship with that physician and clinic. Things were getting worse...pain in hips and thighs was breath taking and somedays I could not walk through the house without holding on to furniture. I tried acupuncture fo 3 months and it lowered the pain level a bit. Then the pandemic came and because of our age and other health issues our family has been staying home unless a trip to a doctor or pharmacy was needed. About 3 months ago the pain intensified so I went back to the orthopedic clinic. I was referred to a different pain management clinic. This time I had confidence in the provider and was glad something would be done to help. I finished a course of 3 subforaminal injections on July 28. Sadly, the impact was minimal. When I had my routine appt with my internist I asked the doctor to rule out other things that might be going on in addition to the mess in my back..I felt generally sick. Labs came back with slight elevation in sed rate but a CRP of 32. All other labs were WNL. I have started a trial of prednisone..31 days beginning with 40mg per day for 10 days and tapering to 10mg. Doc will evaluate when this is done. I am on my 3rd day at 40mg. The first day I felt some relief, but yesterday no further improvement. I was hopeful. but now feel discouraged. I know I haven't given this enough time and I will stick with it. It is just that I am so overwhelmed and exhausted. Any advice or encouragement is appreciated.