Just for contrast about how one person can feel one way about something and another person can feel entirely different.

I felt like PMR was a "blessing" to me because of being previously diagnosed with other autoimmune conditions. The other conditions were "steroid responsive" so 60 mg of prednisone and a fast taper would be all I needed to achieve remission. I always had leftover prednisone from being treated for those other autoimmune conditions.

I was already a prednisone "junkie" before PMR was diagnosed because I put leftover prednisone to good use even though I didn't always have a doctor's blessing. I didn't hide anything because I admitted to self medicating.

When I told this to my rheumatologist, she was aghast and asked me why. I said that I didn't want to bother anyone! I was very happy that my rheumatologist would prescribe prednisone legitimately for PMR.

After taking prednisone for 10 years for PMR, I was having doubts about whether or not I still had PMR. I wanted off prednisone so badly but I couldn't taper off. I wrote a tactfully worded question to my rheumatologist about whether or not she only diagnosed PMR because I wanted prednisone.

I don't know how she felt but she seemed stern and reaffirmed that my diagnosis was PMR. She said she would not have prescribed prednisone if she didn't think I needed it.

I was just reviewing some of our correspondence that my rheumatolgist and I had in the past. I would refer to myself as a a prednisone junkie but an honest one. I just read what I wrote to my rhematologist 5 years ago. I wrote the following:

"I am wondering what you would recommend about the following: I am down to 7 mg prednisone in October and plan to decrease to 6 mg in November. Today, the problem is a sore neck, shoulders and extreme fatigue with ongoing lower back and hip pain. I am feeling progressively worse but not drastically worse, however, I doubt my wife would agree with that assessment. We will be going away and doing something fun during the last part of October and first part of November. I would like to feel as good as possible when we leave. I am sure that I will need some kind of anti-inflammatory because decreasing prednisone further isn't going to make me feel any better. We won't be leaving for a couple more weeks but I would like to feel as good as possible when we leave. In the past, I will confess to taking significantly higher doses of prednisone specifically for trips like this. Regardless of whether it was a good idea or not --- it worked."

I can't believe how stupid I was!