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@redboat

My recent experience: I've been diagnosed with PMR, and started on prednisone a week ago today. I took 10 mg the first two days, then went to 20 mg, after discussion with my doctor.

The pain, while significantly diminished, is still there, and I am still fatigued. I'm grateful for the relief, and hopeful for further improvement, but progress is not as fast as I hoped.

The pain in the 3 weeks before being diagnosed and treated with prednisone, was SEVERE and 24/7. It felt like I had broken bones. I found hot baths were helpful, and ibuprofen did reduce the pain, but still left me very miserable indeed.

My c-reactive protein, which peaked at 34.7 mg/dL is now down to 3 mg/dL (Kaiser says less than 0.5 mg/dL is normal). It seems the prednisone is really helping.

I am 63 years old, with a northern European background, so apparently I am in the genetically predisposed group, although I am male.

Reading other's experiences is very helpful, and comments are welcome.

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Replies to "My recent experience: I've been diagnosed with PMR, and started on prednisone a week ago today...."

Hi @redboat, Welcome to Connect. You might find the following discussion helpful:
--- PMR Dosages and Managing Symptoms: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pmr-dosages/.

Prednisone is definitely the magic pill to make the PMR pain go away for most of us. One of the problems is that it sometimes takes a higher dose of prednisone to relieve the pain symptoms and their are quite a few conditions that mimic PMR --- Polymyalgia rheumatica: Look before you leap: https://bpac.org.nz/bpj/2013/june/polymyalgia-rheumatica.aspx.

If you are not already doing it, you might want to consider keeping a daily log with your level of pain and dosage of prednisone. The daily log can help you when you are tapering off of prednisone so that you can minimize flare ups.

Has your doctor discussed a tapering plan with prednisone?