Do I really have PMR?

I also had no inflammatory markers and only felt my pain while laying down. 10 mg of prednisone relieved my pain right away, but steroids can relieve pain from multiple sources, including cervical radiculopathy, which I now believe I may have had all this time!

Hello suetex

Do you take Prednisone for the PMR? I have been on MTX for 3 weeks and my pain has vanished. I still have fatigue and lethargy. Can you take MSM with Prednisone and MTX? Thanks for your feedback. 🌺

Hello again

I’ve had PMR for 2.3 years and been yo-yoing on Prednisone 15 mg at the onset to 8 mg and now back at 15 mg and started 10 mg of MTX 3 weeks ago. No pain now since starting MTX but depressed and fatigued. My inflammatory markers have been normal since the onset of PMR - which has been confirmed by my Rheumatologist.

I do take methyl prednissolone (8mg equal to 10 mg pred). My rheumy does not think that MTX works for PMR- and my genetics says it wouldn't work for me anyway. I have a certain kind of pain in my arm muscles that happen with PMR when it is active that I haven't had for a while. I have so much going on with my body that is not PMR that I don't want to bore you with but I feel that I have the PMR on the run. I have put my taper "on hold" right now because of other health challenges. I'm pretty sure that MSM doesn't interact with other meds but a check with drugs.com might be good.

I was diagnosed in June 2022 with PMR.Started out on 30 mg prednisone and then gradually tapered. At the 10 mg dose the pain came back so doctor put me on 12 mg of Prednisone ( still on it for 21 days) then I assume go back to either 12.5 mg or 10 mg. In the scientific literature 50 percent of those diagnosed with PMR will have a relapse at some point usually when the dose is below 5 to 7.5 mg per day. ( Source: Predicting the risk in polymyalgia rheumatica: novel insights. Pub Med.gov.

Do you take this medication orally or by an IM injection?

I was diagnosed with PMR and my markers were all normal.

According to the Mayo Clinic you can have normal markers and still have the disease. This is supported in every scientific journal across the world. Your doctor should know this.

I't an oral medication just like prednisne, with the same side effects.

I've got PMR, contracted it 14 months ago. I started on 50mg of Pred and I'm now down to 1.5mgs. That's quick, I know, but I managed it. I've had the flares each time I've reduced and all the 6 weekly blood tests that go with those reductions. My results for pain markers never really matched up with my pain levels at the time the blood was taken. I'd find high markers when I had little discomfort and sometimes low markers when I was really sore. Doctors tend to go by the lab results when dictating the speed of any Pred reductions, but I finally "trained" my GP to use MY feed-back on MY pain levels and just use the test results as a back up. The patient has the symptoms, not the doctor. In my case it has proven beneficial to get off Pred very quickly. My GP leaves the dosage drops to me as long as I let him know. My other tip is to read up on how Pred affects your how own adrenal/cortisol system works. Study the HPA Axis. You'll soon get a grip on what you're doing to beat PMR. You'll understand why you feel so weak and tired and how to lessen those. I'm nearly there, I'm nearly off Pred. Good luck.