What steroid dosage did you start on? Did you find the right dosage?

My rheumatologist wanted me to start on 15 but I talked him into starting on 10 which has worked for me. Dx in April, now on 8 and soon to go to 7. I, too, am very sensitive to medication and less is usually better. That said, I am also doing everything I can think of simultaneously to support the process: anti-inflammatory diet, hbot, pemf mat, b12 shots, supplements, epson salt baths etc. from reading these forums, it appears 10 mg is lowest dose people have started on.

I think I’m an exception since I started in May at 6mg methylprednisolone which I’ve heard is a bit stronger than prednisone. I am now down to 5 mg. of methyl pred. I have not had much morning pain or stiffness, but in the early afternoon , my symptoms are basically confined to my legs with a feeling of weakness and heaviness making it difficult to walk and sometimes with a bit of tingling as well. Has anyone else experienced leg weakness and do you know if it is a symptom of PMR or a side effect of the prednisone?

Just diagnosed last week, hadn't ever heard of PMR but sounds right. PMR affects my upper arms and shoulders, terribly painful in the morning becoming liveable as the day proceeds with Tylenol and Advil. I'm a 79-year-old woman who already has high risk osteoporosis - explained to me as meaning that any fall has a 20% chance of breaking bones. The doctor recommends starting with 15mg. The idea of losing more bone mass is terrifying, but so is PMR, particularly with the possibility of Giant Cell whatever-it-is (I keep imagining this is a cartoon creature planning to sit on me).

Looking around on line, it seems as though there is no choice but to take prednisone. The condition won't go away by itself and won't get better. Right now it feels as though I'm doomed either way. I was hoping that prednisone might improve sleep, but possible side effects are insomnia and restlessness. There's weight gain AND bone loss. Crankiness (I majored in crankiness.). With other medications I've tended to do well with smaller than recommended doses, but these are steroids. Is there a minimum effective starting dosage? I'm taking Alendronate once a week for the osteoporosis.

10 mg made a huge difference, but my hands were still painful. My doctor called to check on me and said, “Don’t be afraid to double the dose.” Although I was completely pain free, my doctor kept me on 20 mg for 3 months, because my CRP and ESR were still elevated. I took a year to taper after that, with great success. Now I’m having my 2nd bout with PMR - started at 15, and that again was not enough. Only stayed on 20 for 3 weeks this time, before tapering. My hands have had some amount of pain from 15 mg down, and now at 6 mg wish I’d stayed on 20 mg longer. I’m tapering much slower this time (7 weeks per mg), but I’m going to taper even slower going forward (1/2 mg every 8 weeks). I’ve removed wheat, alcohol, and sugar from my diet this week - and I believe it’s made a difference. We’ll see what the blood numbers say in March. Good luck.

It took maybe another few days for 100%! I was good at this level until I had an episode of diverticulitis that i had to have IV antibiotics for 18 days. Hospital 7 of those. Then, 2 weeks later I got the quadravalent flu shot (the strong one for older people). 2 days later I have fever, chills, night sweats. I felt like a huge mack truck hit me., Was hospitalized for this with fevers up to 100.8. More strong antibiotics IV. Rheumy put me up 1 mg to 11 mg prednisone for the "stress" of all the medical conditions. I was on 11 mg for 10 days, then back to 10, i began to taper after 2 weeks, to 9 one day, 10 the next for a week. Then 9/8 (alternate days for 2 weeks). I was okay until I hit 7 mg and my back muscles, shoulder muscles, neck muscles, side of body muscles and profound exhaustion hit. Went back up to 10 mg. it has not worked as well. The 13 mg for 3 days, then 12, 11, 10. I can reach, turn over, get up from sitting position, no pain in hips, shoulders or elbows sleeping at night, just awful muscle distress in back muscles...which is where first
PRM hit. i lived with this pain and the galloping other symptoms---THIS back muscle recurrences is a nightmare. Now I am on Flexeril...i took it twice and slept the entire day....pain relief...but next day not so much as I only took half the dose. I do not want to sleep all day!! Not sure what is up but my oncologist says we have to get me off the steroids...my blood sugar is insane...up to 350 daily...i am now on 3 insulins. Kidneys compromised anyway but now worse...BP increased so I am on double the BP medicine. I don' t know the next step...he is conferring about it but some "steroid sparing" agent" but not Mtrexte...Will write in when I know the plan. Sorry so long a post but your question deserved an answer. Oh, my sed rate in hospital last time was 100 and the crp 47.5. CRP normal now. Sed rate 53.

Just diagnosed last week, hadn't ever heard of PMR but sounds right. PMR affects my upper arms and shoulders, terribly painful in the morning becoming liveable as the day proceeds with Tylenol and Advil. I'm a 79-year-old woman who already has high risk osteoporosis - explained to me as meaning that any fall has a 20% chance of breaking bones. The doctor recommends starting with 15mg. The idea of losing more bone mass is terrifying, but so is PMR, particularly with the possibility of Giant Cell whatever-it-is (I keep imagining this is a cartoon creature planning to sit on me).

Looking around on line, it seems as though there is no choice but to take prednisone. The condition won't go away by itself and won't get better. Right now it feels as though I'm doomed either way. I was hoping that prednisone might improve sleep, but possible side effects are insomnia and restlessness. There's weight gain AND bone loss. Crankiness (I majored in crankiness.). With other medications I've tended to do well with smaller than recommended doses, but these are steroids. Is there a minimum effective starting dosage? I'm taking Alendronate once a week for the osteoporosis.

Hello @richardab @redboat @tls4 @bfh3 we seem to be in the newly diagnosed group (? Early 2023?) I re-read the post I typed here a while back- I did 30mg 6 days, 27.5 6 days, today is day 1 @ 25mg Prednisone-i remain pain and stiffness free ! YAY -
I think this is a recent, important paper that addressing the question above - Knowledge about the possible patterns of response can only be good -right ?
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2020 Aug 1;59(8):1906-1915. Longitudinal clusters of pain and stiffness in polymyalgia rheumatica: 2-year results from the PMR Cohort Study Sara Muller first author
Results: Five clusters were identified. One cluster represented the profile of 'classical' PMR symptoms (cluster 4 - rapid and sustained)
and one represented sustained symptoms that may not be PMR*. See attached graph for the others.

I read that Osteopenia induced by Prednisone is treatable. Do you have that or Osteoporosis. A biologic for PMR WAS JUST APPROVED.

I started at 15mg 6 weeks ago