My PMR journey began April 2019 with what I thought was hand injury from my dog pulling on leash. My right hand became very swollen, couldn’t grasp anything, really lost use. Had PT for two months, which helped some. Then in June, I could hardly get out of bed, very stiff neck, could barely get into/out of car. Took docs ‘til August to diagnose PMR—after MRIs, CAT scans, Spine consult, colonoscopy, etc. started on 15mg pred & after a week most symptoms dramatically improved. Took a while to get use of hand back so that I could chop an onion again. Tried tapering down pred after six months, got down to 8.5 mg over a couple of months, then my left foot/ankle swelled & my left bicep became so painful—so, back up to 13mg pred to address those issues. So, 14 mos on pred & I am attempting to taper down, am currently @ 11.5 mg, going down half a mg after 4 weeks & see if that works. I have found that massaging my swollen foot/ankle works wonders@ eliminating swelling, so am trying that on bicep as well with some success. Like everyone, I’m so anxious to get off pred!!

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