Hi Gail! I know just what you mean about being 48 and feeling 88!
Anyway - Hum - what do you mean by comforting words? Do you want me to say "no can't be, you're too young" or "yes, perfectly possible"? ;-)
If your doctor thinks you may have PMR from the symptoms - at least he is one who WON'T dismiss you as being too young as you are under 50. We have several people in their 40s and early 50s who have come across doctors who dismissed them as not being old enough. The youngest person in the medical literature who was finally diagnosed as PMR was 26!
Your doctor seems a bit unsure if he's sending you for blood tests - but a high ESR and CRP so support a diagnosis. If they are normal though - that doesn't stop it being PMR. I have very low results for them, always have done, and my PMR responds the way it should to steroids: I was 70% better 6 hour after taking my first dose! It is not unusual for younger patients with PMR to have atypical blood results and it does confuse the issue.
Have you mentioned the headache and temple pain to your GP? Do you get any pain/discomfort in your jaw when chewing? Get him to see if he can find a pulse in the temple that is sore.
Now the comforting words: if it is PMR and you are put onto 15mg a day of prednisolone you will feel much better very soon! As I say, for me it took 6 hours to go from being as you are in the mornings to being able to get out of a chair and walk downstairs properly, not like a toddler, one step at a time.
Many people are scared of pred - it isn't as bad as it is painted by any means. Yes, some people put on weight but you don't necessarily do so. There are well over 80 side effects - no one gets them all, some get none. But what it does do is manage the symptoms so you get a life back and can move and the pain is much better. It doesn't always go away 100% but it should be 70% better very quickly (if it isn't, it may not be PMR). On that note - I hope he has asked for a vit D test - low vit D can cause the same sort of symptoms and is often found in patients with PMR.
Don't expect to be back to normal just because you are on pred - some doctors seem to think that's it, no more problems - but it isn't entirely. And don't fall into the trap of thinking "I feel fine" and catching up with all the things you haven't done for weeks/months because if you do you will end up thinking the pred's doing nothing. You have to learn to pace yourself or the PMR will turn round and bite back! Things will improve in time, the PMR may even go into remission but that isn't going to happen next week or even next month and you must be patient, patient too about reducing the pred dose because if you try to go too fast the PMR symptoms will come back. Pred doesn't cure it, it allows you to manage the symptoms and then you have to find the lowest dose that will do that.
Good luck - and come back and tell us if the GP decides that is what it is and whether pred works for you. Then we'll answer any questions you have if we can and tell you how to get more helpful info. Do tell us where you live - there may be a support group nearby!
Eileen
