Newly diagnosed

@nm11643

I would have said my prednisone side effects were "minimal" during my heyday of taking prednisone. When I'm confronted with a long list of medical complications during my many years of taking Prednisone it was harder for me to deny side effects because my medical history was an extensive list of otherwise unexplained events.

I had a tendon that ruptured "spontaneously" which doctors speculated might have been caused by prednisone. Same for an "unprovoked" pulmonary embolism. All the infections were simply treated with antibiotics and the my rheumatologist only said my "immune system was being suppressed." However, Prednisone was supposed to suppress my immune system so that wasn't a side effect.

Then there were hormone "imbalances" and metabolic "abnormalities" which weren't even revealed to me until I was referred to an endocrinologist for adrenal insufficiency. That was when an endocrinologist said to some degree adrenal insufficiency and a low cortisol level was "inevitable" when a person takes Prednisone for as long as I did.

I learned more about the side effects of prednisone after I tapered off Prednisone and not during the time I was taking Prednisone. When it came to Prednisone withdrawal symptoms when I tried to taper off Prednisone ... it was no wonder I couldn't taper off Prednisone easily. I just called that pain a PMR flare even though the pain wasn't like my original PMR symptoms.

@slh317 that is both inspiring and encouraging. Happy for your symptom free lifestyle.

@nm11643 hi. Did your doctor tell you that your PMR was triggered by COVID-19 booster shots? How many have you had (total) and when was your last booster? And, did you get COVID-19, sick from the virus?

Same here. My labs are normal but I have textbook symptoms. Came on overnight about 6 weeks ago, The nights are awful and mornings are tough, I will have to start prednisone too. Hope a small dose will do the trick.
I hope you feel better on it. Its is a show stopping disease.

My sed rate and other test were also not very high but I had full blown pmr. I read that those tests don't always show. My brother who had this also had low numbers.

Yes, my labs were not bad either. If prednisone stops pain that should give the doctor his diagnosis. My sed rate was 6 and other tests were not conclusive.

I got my diagnosis about a year ago. I was in so much pain and nothing helped. Pain in the morning and lessened throughout the day. My pain was really bad in my shoulders. It got really bad in the morning so I was glad to get a diagnosis and relief through Prednisone. My inflammation markers were high but sed rate not so much. I have tapered to 2 mg of prednisone. I have not had any adverse reaction to COVID vaccine. I have the usual side effects of prednisone but am so glad to be out of pain. My hope now is to get off of prednisone and have no pain. PMR is a strange disease. Not all people experience the same journey. I appreciate this forum,