My journey with PMR began shortly after my 65th birthday and my 5th haircut. I shouldn’t think that either of these was traumatic but I was under a lot of stress and my diet was mostly carbs and sugar. I woke up one morning in mid-June and the pain I felt in my thighs and shoulders was frightening. As the days went on, it became more difficult to function. I made an appointment with my Primary Dr for July 11. He did a complete blood panel that came back with elevated ESR. He did not do labs for C-reactor, so all I was going by was the ESR. He put me on a 9 day course of Prednisone, 40mg for 3 days, 20mg for 3 days, 10mg for 3 days, then cold turkey. I went back on Aug 11 for more bloodwork and the ESR number had quadrupled and the C-reactor was off the charts high. He recommended that I see a Rheumatologist for future treatment.
At the beginning, after the initial 9 days of Prednisone, I was adamant that I never wanted to take that again. It was awful on my stomach, on my sleep, on my being uncomfortable and sweaty. I knew instinctively that I needed to do as much research as possible. When I mentioned to my Dr after the first blood test, whether I might have PMR he said I was to young and nothing else would indicate that I had it. He followed up with chest X-ray and another blood panel. That’s when he handed me off to a rheumatologist. First visit with rheumatologist was short and sweet. Either I take Prednisone or I could cause irreparable damage to myself. That didn’t sound very good so I started on 15 mg per day for one month. More blood work. Numbers came down drastically but still out of range. Second month and the taper has begun. 12.5 per day and this is manageable. I sweat like a pig at night. I have terrible insomnia. My hair is coming out. I am achy at times. I unimaginably have eliminated sugar from my diet. I am on a semi-Keto diet.
I can move now without the excruciating pain I felt back in June/July. Life is good and I am upbeat. I have PMR, I have Scottish ancestry, and my name is Annie. Hello in here.