I have had PMR for 18 months, on the whole I do quite well. From 40mg predesolone per day I am now at 8.5 mg per day. Apart from year usual side affects ....curly hair growing wild to nails growing stronger and of course tiredness,hot flushes and poor sleep on occasions......and a few others I now feel very chesty on occasions. Does any one else get this?
Were your doctors absolutely happy about the PMR diagnosis? Do you know why you were started on 40mg/day - that is a very high dose for "just" PMR and is more usually used for GCA with PMR symptoms plus other indicators.
If you are persistently "chesty", and even more so if you have "chest infections" that don't respond well to antibiotics, then you should pursue it with your doctor as there are other forms of vasculitis which can mimic PMR in the early stages and then later progress to their true character. A couple can involve the lungs so it is something that shouldn't be ignored. It probably isn't anything of the sort, they are very rare, but "very rare" doesn't mean never.
I've got the hair and nails growing...however, not curly hair. My husband
thinks I'm nuts and my hairdresser doesn't understand why I'm at her
shop getting a haircut every thee weeks or so. I'm glad that someone
finally mentioned about hair and nails growing faster.
My hair stopped growing altogether when I was on Medrol. It does seem to grow very well now though. And my nails were WONDERFUL on higher doses of pred but although they grow quite fast, they aren't as hard now at 5mg.
The doctor was happy I had pmr after blood tests. I was in a terrible state l could hardly walk or lift my arms up to clean teeth and comb hair. I could not lift my leg to get over door step. After consultation with rheumatology GCA was not an issue. Now on lower dose of pred the pains have receded, just the tiredness on occasions and stress levels. I hope that by next year I can get to a lower dose, I am doing the reduction slowly to lessen the likelihood of flare up.