Hi John. This is a follow-up to my earlier posts. I saw my rheumatologist yesterday and explained that the 6 day "snap-back" of Prednisone worked fine....for about a week after the last 4mg dose. Pain came back quickly and has been quite debilitating from a QOL perspective. Now my sense was that after being with him for 20 or 30 years he might have recommended a new Pred prescription of perhaps a supply of 10 mg pills which I could start taking 20 mg for a day or two, then down to 15, and down to about 5 after 2 weeks, and go from there but even consider 1.5 or 2 per day for the remainder of my time on this mortal coil. Point being that this is not a drug that one tends to abuse...and he knows me better than that.

But he did not do that. He wants to look at the CRP and ESR first. I reminded him that they have been boringly normal for 2 years. So that bloodwork result hit the portal earlier today, and of course was very low. Waiting to hear from him - so this should be really interesting.

What nags me is the very thought that since he cannot clinically rationalize the pain, he may think it's not real.

More soon....unless you tell me to stop whining,