Good luck!
Pam, I have right hip pain. sometimes it is sciatic nerve causing it. I have herniated discs in my back by the sciatic nerve. ALL kinds of pain causing issues. BEST WISHES!
Pam, last summer I did tear my hip labrum, strained piriformis and SI joint. Very painful couldn’t get comfortable. Had a number of Epidural Steroid Injections that seems to have done the job, good luck we don’t need this on top of PMR. 
I don’t notice anything less…in fact I think I do more in my second year…just take it 10 minutes at a time…my mother in law told me housework will always be there so take time for the kids..in my case I take time for wc painting. My husband in a saint and just keeps truckin’ but some time he won’t be able to take up the slack and a smaller compact place is coming sooner or later. keep a happy face in adversity…it’s less energy than tears.
Pam, different from one doctor to another, the specialist I went would not even see me with out a MRI.
That is how he knew I had the tear and strains.
I saw the specialist first!
Ptolemy, healthcare is crazy I have to see my PCP to get a referral to see the specialist. Which is sometimes very difficult, hard to get appointments. So to beat the system we have go around it, crazy! You have to keep smiling.
I’m sorry to hear PMR has affected you so badly. I definitely can’t hike and climb as I used to I admit, but I still get out and try to do the most I can. Though I need a climbing partner for mountains, I still make my yearly trip to Maine and my son helps me get over the more difficult parts of each climb. What used to take a few hours now takes most the day. I can’t run as far, but still try to jog two miles. I lift weights but not to the extent I used to (bodybuilding), so I just push myself enough to enjoy activities but not enough to cause a flare or too much pain. Finding a balance is tricky but I’m grateful to be as functional as I am. I’m at 4 1/2 mg prednisone, hovering there till school is out. I hope you feel better!
Nancy, that is amazing. so happy for you. Some days I can walk 1/2 mile slowly. I use a walker or my body would get too whooped. Housework is very hard for me. MY husband is a godsend. Cooking is VERY hard for me. I really have to focus on what I can do, not what I can’t.
Yes the focus has to change and not compare ourselves to what we used to be. Maybe we will get closer to the used to be, but for now do what is enjoyable and do other things in spirts…not like we used to do to get it out of the way fast. No fast here for me…cooking used to be hard, but has gotten better. I am looking for new receipes in a easy cookbook and finding good things to eat. Keep that smile ready and handy. It will help you and those who look at you.
So glad you are able to do so much. I guess there is a whole spectrum of how people are impacted by PMR. Enjoy your hikes with your son!
Hi Michdonn, come to UK it is becoming non existent it seems. There is a new horror story in the press every day. I put a lot of it down to bad management and ancient computer systems that do not talk to each other. Appointments can take for ever. Occassionally you see the most fantastic things happening in surgery for example so I suppose it is not all bad.
Ptolemy, there are many people in this country who have no health care at all. I am retired from AT&T and health insurance is one of my benefits. We know several people who have not seen a doctor in years and some who just go to emergency room if they have a health issue. Plus the cost of drugs here is ridiculous, many people here go to Mexico or Canada if their drugs are not covered by insurance . I don’t know what the answer is, but the system is definitely broke! I thought it was better there than here. What a mess!
I must admit, people do say it is worse in the US. It is now getting to the point that there seems a total shambles here. Having it free sounds wonderful, but there are a lot of downsides as they are now producing lists of things they do not include. They are trying to put people off having hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery it seems. I think the aim may be to get people to go privately.
It’s definitely better in countries like Canada and the UK, but in the UK especially it looks like the two tiers - those who can afford it can go private - has done what we have fought very hard against in Canada: resulted in two classes of patients. I know there’s a lot of pressure to allow doctors to set up private practice but they aren’t allowed. Also the health companies in the US salivate at the prospect of being allowed to set up shop in Canada, but so far we’ve kept that from happening. There are many things which we really have to get privately, not covered, most dental and eye care, for example, although apparently my eye care is covered by MSI, not sure why, and some children’s dental care is covered. If you want a publicly funded physiotherapist be prepared to wait a year - so I don’t. Those who can, carry extra insurance to cover the many things not covered by our medicare, including medicine.
It is not just the people who can afford it in UK anymore although a lot of companies and individuals pay for private insurance. People are in such pain they are taking out loans to have an op. Some people even go abroad. France has been offering very good deals on hips for UK people recently. I suppose if the private sector were cancelled things would be even worse. The NHS are using private hospitals to help them out at the moment.
A lot of people think health care in Canada is free. Believe me, it’s not! We pay for our health care though our taxes!
As the costs of medical and medical support services rise, we see a reduction in the benefits covered. Or, the percentage of costs covered is reduced and we have to pay more deductible. Some of us are fortunate to have supplemental health care from employers (usually cost shared premiums) or through government if 65 or older. Again as costs go up benefits are reduced.
Wait lists in Canada are just as bad as everywhere else and vary from city to city and province to province. I’m in the midst of a wait of 2 1/2 years for an endoscopy in a major city in Western Canada. My need is not urgent, however, I was told by my physician that even if it was urgent the wait would still be over a year.
The reason we haven’t allowed this in Canada is because it’s believed, and I think validly, that allowing private medicine to exist alongside the public system will lead to gutting of the public system. Because of the proximity of the USA we have to be super vigilant. It’s not like we have a lot of other countries across a small body of water which also have publicly funded medical care. If private services are allowed here, because of treaties with the US we open the floodgates to their private system.
I live in the United States and am 73, on MEDICARE and have SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE to cover what medicare does not. We have very good coverage and I can see whatever kind of doctor I need to. Yes, we pay for our medicare coverage and insurance, but it is worth it for what they provide including, surgeries, knee replacement, hopitalizations, doctor appointments, prescriptions, etc. I feel fortunate. Linda
It really doesn’t help to have our system being run by politicians and businessmen without input from the medical providers, let alone the patients. It all seems to be about saving money, never mind that we could save the most money by providing very good preventative care and making sure people could live healthy lives with adequate food and shelter. It’s about a lot more than whether we have a GP or not. Trouble is today’s politicians don’t remember what it was like in days before medicare, human memory is short.
I have recently had reframed a large, beautiful Chinese embroidery given to my father by a grateful patient in days before medicare. He often got payment in kind - a wheel of cheese, a hunk of venison. No doubt he would have appreciated these gifts, but they were given because the patients didn’t have money to pay the bill. They gave him some of their farm produce, meat they had hunted themselves, or perhaps a family heirloom as the embroidery may have been. Life wasn’t easy for either the patients or the doctors, especially in small towns or rural communities. We’ve forgotten this. I was still in my teens when medicare was introduced. I remember few years later an acquaintance saying she would have lost her eyesight were it not for medicare, otherwise she couldn’t have afforded the treatment, this at a time when we all remembered what it was like to have to find the money to pay the doctor.