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Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR): Meet others & Share Your Story
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Nov 18 7:12pm | Replies (1907)Comment receiving replies
Hello @loujc, Welcome to Connect. I've had 2 occurrences of PMR with the first lasting 3 and half years until I was able to taper off of prednisone. I started with 20 mg prednisone for both occurrences. I struggled more with tapering with my first go around with PMR. The second time was a little easier because I changed my eating habits, gave up processed foods, cut way back on sugar and focused on eliminating as much inflammatory food items as I could. I also added a little more exercise and stretching to my morning routine but nothing strenuous. I think this helped my to taper off of prednisone in 1 and half years the second around. I've been in remission now almost 5 years.
How is your tapering going? Do you keep a daily log of your dose and level of pain in the morning when you wake up?
Replies to "Hello @loujc, Welcome to Connect. I've had 2 occurrences of PMR with the first lasting 3..."
Hello All, I posted on this chat site one time (May 31st) and you may or may not care to review that post to appreciate this follow-up after 28 days. I postponed my second posting because I was conducting a sort of clinical experiment on myself and did not want to report premature misinformation.
After my "first" acute PMR episode in mid-May, I immediately started 40mg of pred with a planned 3 to 4 week taper depending on response. My initial response to the steroid was immediate (within 24 hr.) pain relief. Within a week of my first symptoms, I had blood work done that showed dramatically elevated CRP and IL-6 (normal sed Westergren sed rate). The one surprising finding was a positive urine analysis (positive for Klebsiella pneumoniae), a UTI which responded to a 10 day course of Amoxicillin/Clavulanic (Augmentin). I have a chronic bladder dysfunction and thus, reoccurring UTIs. But in retrospect, I realize that I had been nursing a subacute, mildly symptomatic, untreated UTI (cloudy, frequent urination) for an extended period. I share this clinical history because my classic PMR presentation (clinical and lab confirmed) has resolved completely (no steroids for 2 weeks now) and pain free. I think the immune system in older patients (>60 ?) can respond to infection with a "pseudo PMR" or a "PMR-like" attack which seems to resolve with a short course of tapered steroids and aggressive anti-infective therapy. with any signs of acute, subacute or chronic infection.
I strongly urge people to consider infection (acute, subacute or chronic) as a potential trigger for "PMR-like," reversible reactions.
Good luck to all
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Thank you for your note. I am still on a steroid tape with mixed results day to day. Morning pain is usually the worst, but at 10mg now, it seems to be a little less.
Good luck to you, Lou