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Does adrenal insufficiency with unregulated inflammation cause flares?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Aug 30, 2023 | Replies (17)Comment receiving replies
@johnbishop - I know you had two bouts of PMR but you were able to taper off prednisone in a reasonable amount of time. It was still a few of years before you could taper off prednisone. Did you ever suspect that it was "something else" along with PMR that made it difficult to taper off? Did you ever suspect adrenal insufficiency was part of the problem?
I still remember a nurse telling me once that we are good at treating the original problem. Unfortunately, we tend to create new additional problems with the treatment of the first problem.
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Hi @dadcue, I struggled my first time around with PMR and had a good discussion with my Mayo rheumatologist. He shared some stories of some other patients of his with similar struggles tapering off of prednisone one of whom rung a bell with me when he said he had been on 1mg prednisone for a few years until he was able to taper off. That was towards the end of my 3rd year with PMR the first time and when I started splitting my 1mg tablets and going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I was able to taper off 6 months later with little to no pain. My second time around 6 years later was easier because I had already found Connect for my neuropathy and I was able to learn from others who tapered slowly and modified their lifestyle to help with PMR.
I really didn't even think about other causes since it was always explained to me that PMR is basically like arthritis all over your body and growing up I can remember how much pain my mom was due to rheumatoid arthritis.