Are there doctors that specialize in PMR treatment?

Good question. ChatGPT listed about 10 centers around the USA that have extensive experience treating people with PMR/GCA.

This list includes some big names in the field of PMR.
https://findexpertmd.com/d/Polymyalgia_Rheumatica

Great list but had the humorous (dark, dystopian) thought that by the time you might be able to see one of these experts the disease would be over on its own or via prednisone. What I take from this is that it is great that there are some international experts who are researching this disease but I would never think I could ever see one of them. Living in the US has jaded me.

@petermccarville

I have never had any reason to see a "PMR expert" in rheumatology. I felt the same way when someone strongly recommended that I see an endocrinologist who specialized in adrenal insufficiency. In the case, of adrenal insufficiency, my overwhelming fatigue made it impossible.

I have only seen "run of the mill" rheumatologists and endocrinologists who were very capable at treating PMR and adrenal insufficiency. The key was that I had easy access to them when I needed them. Access is more important than consulting someone hundreds of miles away or someone you need to wait months to see.

I was blessed to have access to doctors who responded to me in a reasonable amount of time. When they deemed it to be something serious, the question was always, "How soon could I come in to be seen?" I didn't ask my doctor the question ... they asked me that question.

@dadcue . Wow, "blessed" is the operative word here. I have never had a doctor ask me "how soon can I come in to see him/her". Glad you have been able to get the care you need when you needed it. Some of us have not been so "blessed", unfortunately. I was successful, however, with my primary care dr in treating PMR. All has worked out with her. However, she is leaving the local practice (operated by our rural hospital) to do private practice, boutique functional medicine for professional freedom, financial freedom, and schedule freedom reasons.

I'm American but living in Australia:yes there are doctors for this stuff but when I went to see them, I was told to go swimming! Now when in America, we tell people to go jump in a lake, so this did not go over very well, especially as he charged $400 for that appointment! Then the next doctor was a cardiologist who tole me the ONLY thing he would do is inject my blood with an ink to see if I had blood clots! I knew this procedure was not very healthy for the kidneys, nor blood, and declined. That appointment was to be $800, but ended up only $220. There was another medicine offered that was for the pain but also used to treat depression, but all the people who have written in regarding that one are disturbed by the sudden jolt, like an electrical shock, that occurs in one's brain, at random. I couldn't imagine really taking such junk when I drive a car or just hold a hot coffee cup. So then there are the vitamins: Potassium infusion I've had after being unable to walk as my legs collapsed; and there are pills also take morning and night of potassium which are of great help. There are multivitamins and B12, D3, and K2 are very good too. Look it all up online. Then you might need a "Melatonin" tablet for sleeping, as the Prednisone keeps the brain quite alive. It awakened the side of my brain that is involved in art, for example. I have a huge bedroom now decorated with floral arrangements lit up with blue and UV lights. I also have huge lead light windows in waterfalls that look terrific in that light, and oil paintings that are in blue light. So make your Prednisone brain turn onto what is up in there. When the doctors then give you dementia tests, and the annoyance of those as you need to count backwards from 100 and skip 7 numbers and subtract them, you can basically tell them to get off your cloud because you shouldn't be expected to be tested when you are on such a drug! There is the pain too to cope with. I am on Sifrol for restless less. Now that means no penicillin for me as it would collapse my kidneys, so you would need Keflex. Think about that. Pain relief was only given in safe over the counter medicines, but I sometimes wish for the old days in Australia when one could easily but codeine and high doses too even though it was addicting. But not these days. PMR has been awful. At first I was 58 lbs! It took away my taste buds and after one bite, made the rest taste putrid! Then I did not sleep for 2 months! I could hardly move 2 inches without terrible pain. I went a whole year like this, with two ambulance journeys to the hospital before a doctor took a look at the lever arch file filled with doctor visits for 2024 and sent me to a major hospital. By that time, the head nurse told me there are a lot of women coming in with inflammation! Now, recently, I had need of an antibiotic and was put on Keflex and I can tell you how much better I felt just after a day! Go figure: this is a blood inflammation issue and finally I'm getting an antibiotic that takes away inflammation! So I feel much better just after a day! How outrageous is this! You can see from all this, how awful it all has been. Now I won't be having any more Covid shots, and by the way, there are heaps of medical professionals who also feel this way about these mRNA vax methods. then I also read a report that these doses were not accurate as the scientists set out to have much smaller accurate doses, but the sloppiness of the labs exceeded and did not have the qualities precise, so we got an increase in which our immune system couldn't cope, and now you have a bigger picture of the lifestyle many of us live. There is one nurse who also has this and for the pain she has a patch on her shoulder which releases morphine! Now that sounds acceptable for the pain, but it may compromise what? At least she doesn't complain about it all the time, and walks normally, and works too.

I would really like to have all the PMR blood sucked out and new blood put in, but being clueless about how to clean blood up maybe someone knows how to do that. It has affected badly thousands of people across the world.