Thanks for your comments. My deepest hope is that other patients on Mayo Clinic Connect will learn and benefit from my sharing my journey.
My other hope is that my Rheumy and PCP, who are willing to pile on, learn that this behavior does not do any favors for their patients. Personally I believe it is failing the first part of the Hippocratic Oath of Do No Harm. It is my opinion that piling on a default diagnosis is dangerous to the health of the patient. I believe if I had simply taken 20-30 mg of prednisone a day as they suggested in March 2020 I would be worse off than I am today.
I am becoming a firm believer that more screening tests need to be run before a diagnosis of PMR is legit. Many of these tests are currently not in the domain of a Rheumy and possibly they should be or the Rheumy should send you for clearance before the PMR diagnosis.
Default diagnosis all are dangerous. They lead to treatments that might well hide other symptoms of more serious problems. Certainly PMR treatment hides symptoms. Then think about the side effects of the treatment. Scary if you ask me. Both patients and doctors are accountable. Too much emphasis on pain free living = medical success. Not that simple.