Echoing @johnbishop and @tsc, you definitely CAN have PMR or another inflammatory arthritis without elevated inflammatory markers.

It’s less common but it’s not so uncommon that it’s unheard of. Specifically, I have seronegative spondyloarthropathy (I follow this forum because my dad has PMR) which causes inflammation of the entheses (the place where the joints insert into the bone). This causes really bad burning and aching joint pain in large joints such as the shoulders, knees, and heels, though it’s most often in the lower body. My inflammatory markers have never, ever been elevated. It was to the point that Mayo Clinic rheumatologists misdiagnosed me. The pain persisted and eventually I decided with my rheumatologist at home to do a trial of a TNF blocker for this type of arthritis and it helped.

It can be difficult to differentiate between PMR and other inflammatory conditions though, and prednisone is nonspecific, meaning it could quash any type of inflammation and you might not be able to be sure it’s PMR. For that reason, in my experience it’s usually a rheumatologist you’d want to see for an “atypical presentation” of PMR.

My dad has PMR with elevated markers, but his pain pattern was “atypical.” A rheumatologist diagnosed him because we weren’t making any headway with his PCP. Honestly, I got fed up trying to convince him to even consider PMR that we just jumped over him and found a rheumatologist. But I know that’s not an option for everyone, plus there can be a long wait. We got lucky and I found an opening.

I see the others provided you with some resources you might be able to share with your doctor; maybe that would help.

What kind of doctor are you working with, and if it’s not a rheumatologist, do you have an option to try to find one?