Diagonsis of PMR is not exactly nailed down

Posted by lowell77 @lowell77, Sep 7, 2023

I was tentatively diagnosed with PMR very recently. Got 20 mg of prednisone per day to start for a week, numbers came down slightly, then now on 25 mgs for another two weeks or so. However, my symptoms have not subsided much, plus my shoulder pain is mostly in one shoulder rather than both, plus it came on fairly suddenly and not slowly like it usually does -- and now the docs are wondering if there is something more going on. Lyme disease and RA ruled out by testing. Jealous of many of the people on this thread who get relief very early when they start prednisone. Nobody wants high doses for long periods, I know. Has anybody else had this kind of experience? Hoping it is not something more complicated than PMR.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

nyxygirl | @nyxygirl | Sep 15, 2023

@lowell77 Whew - so happy you are feeling better ! Yes, the split dose absolutely worked for me too -and i also saw mention of it here on this site ! -- but i was taking the pm dose at about 7. pm -- now that i take a smaller (total) dose and moved it to about 5 pm, i sleep much better! Be open to the many ways of splitting : ) I also have had 3 Lyme/tick tests to rule that out !!

speaking of Lyme and PMR (!) For your reading pleasure - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/magazine/hip-shoulder-pain-polymyalgia-rheumatica-diagnosis.html. If you can open this - in the end the patient had a FUNGAL disease - not PMR , not Lyme !