I decided last week that I must start coming off some of the tablets. First one to try? Omeprazole. So, mindfull of all the 'yogurt' posts I'd read, I decided to buy 6 live yoghurt (I've never seen a dead one :lol: ) and give it a go. First day, brilliant - no stomach ache or upset. Day two - brilliant again. Day three - ditto? Day four? I found ALL 6 yoghurts were still in the fridge grinning at me and that I hadn't eaten any of them :yikes: I must be a dead ringer for the 'placebo' effect! I feel really quite silly (and delighted that I can boot the Omeprazole out of the door). Next one on the list? Alendronic Acid :D :magic:
Daft Lizzie xx
Hello Lizzie
I have just read about Omezpraole as I have never come across it myself but have seen it mentioned on here before
Are people only given it if they havr a problem with reflux etc ??
I have given up AA since December and with all the things i have read about it and the huge website with nearly a 1000 comments on it Im not sorry !! If you google steroids you dont come up with that much but AA side effects seem to go on and on !!
Hope your grandson is ok and you are feeling better
Love Mrs G
Sorry Lizzie but your post made me laugh so much :lol: :lol: :lol: Sounds like me trying to put the iron in the fridge when I had finished ironing and losing my glasses for 24 hours and finally finding them in there!!!!! :lol: :lol:
I took Omez..... quite a lot last year alongside the anti-inflammatories whilst they were trying to ascertain what was 'wrong' with me!
Certainly not taking alonside my steroids...... interesting that my 5mg tablets are still 'coated' whilst my 1mg are not.
Good Luck with it all........ now three weeks into not taking AA!!
I've also stopped taking omeprazole have felt a lot better, because of the side effects, one of which i read was weight gain, so with the pred putting the weight on and them i felt huge and uncomfortable,was trying to loose weight and not getting anywhere and now have lost 5lb which is a start. Also haven't taken the AA tablet the last two weeks.
Could I ask if anyone has had a problem with coughing, I've had a cough day and night now for at least for 4 months, and it's driving me mad, wakes me up at night, the doctor has give me an inhaler to take morning and night but it's not helped.
Hi ascotlady........ the eighteen months prior to being diagnosed I had a persistant cough/chest and throat type infection but my doc not in the least interested! Since diagnosis and steroids, it has gone although awoke this morning with sore chest 
hi fiftiesgirl,
I have only had this problem since i've been on steriods, which I started on sept 6th 2010, since then i've had 4 lots of antibiotics for throat and chest infections. never suffered like this before steriods.
Interesting! We are certainly all different aren't we? I am sure that at some point in the distant future they will find all these things are linked :roll: :roll:
For me, in retrospect, alongside all the other 'symptoms' to which I was oblivious, it was my body telling me I was 'unwell'....... it remains to be seen what resurfaces as I go on on this PMR journey...... have only been on steroids since the beginning of Dec so early days yet :roll:
Hi Lizzie-Ellen & all.....you did make me laugh about your yoghurts and it reminded me of the time I went to put on a pair of tights in work, and instead found a pound of chicken livers that I had bought to make Pate :oops: :lol: ......YES ....the tights were in the fridge :!: :!: ....and that was years before I ever had PMR :wink:
Love to all, pauline.
A cough and sore throat can be a symptom in PMR although it is listed under the GCA symptoms usually. I had it too - for 5 years and the doc wasn't interested either - although when I pushed it he agreed to do a sputum culture so I knew it didn't need antibiotics! The sore throat was bad enough to stop me singing after 50 years and I left the choir I belonged to :cry:
Ascotlady - I am told by my daughter (who has worked in a respiratory specialist unit for the last 2 years) that it is now recommended NOT to give antibiotics for apparent \"chest infections\" as they are almost always viral even when you have a productive cough with gungy stuff (they used to assume that green gunge meant bacterial infection which would need antibiotics but this has been shown not to be so). To dish out antibiotics 4 times without doing a culture is rather a pointless exercise, at worst leading to resistant bugs in the long run and at best exposing you (especially your gut) to unnecessary antibiotics. Lazy GP!
EileenH
I had a recurring sore throat the year my PMR came back
I started off at the Xmas time and did end up with antibiotics with a walk in clinic Dr and that year i must have had at least 3 more before my PMR came back in the late summer
I have just had the bug over New Year which didnt go till end of Jan and now I am surrounded with people who have it !!! So chances are here I go again
Best wishes
Mrs G
Well Lizzie, I do believe you're losing it :lol: When I went to bed last night I found my AA tablet on the bedside table - I'd gone through the whole process, drank the copious amounts of water, sat and stood up straight for half an hour. The only thing I missed was the tablet :lol: . Do you think there are 'forces' at work here :ufo: Something telling me I should stop taking them? I've got my Consultant's appointment on Wednesday so it was up for discussion anyway. At least I've never taken chicken livers to work or put the iron in the fridge, so I guess there is hope for me yet. Its been a stressful few days but at least its only the brain that's seized up and not the body.
Take care everyone.
Lizzie
Oh dear, Lizzie Ellen between you and Betty I've really had a good chuckle :doh: 
AA does stand for other things, you know - you haven't perhaps been over indulging have you?!!! :redwine: :hangover: :lol:
MrsO
Hi All (not going to list names as I will be on here for ages)
1) Ah the dreaded steroid cough.
Which nobody recognises as a side effect and I mean nobody. I deal with it, when it comes along, with the old Buttercup, Honey and Lemon and also Friars Balsam. Not saying it cures it but it does go away. Maybe this should be No 84.
2) Treacle Brain or Brain Fog.
Somebody numbered this No 83 adding to the list of 82 published. It comes and goes as well. I forgot my tablets twice last week and even though I have a seven day box, I did not notice until the end of the week.
3) 1mg are always non-enteric coated
Reason dose too small and needs to go into stomach and dissolve their and not into gut (Eileen is this the right way round).
4) Problem with Reflux
And I must thank Mrs O for this and we used it in our Newsletter and the people it has helped are quite numerous
Juice of Lemon (I stick mine in microwave for 30 second + more juice) divide into three and take in glass of water three times a day.
Acid in lemons turns into Alkali when drunk (no not that sort of drunk, :cheers: t'other one.
I now take, Pred, Premarin, Aspirin, Gluocosamine and Vit D. Cod Liver Oil with added vits. Avoid every other thing like a plague for as long as possible.
:angel: No I am not one - but I liked the look of her!!!!!!!!!
How cruel MrsO - you didn't think of steroid brain or PMR fog but cut straight to the booze! :lol: :wink: And if it had been me I would have suggested a drop more gin with the tonic! :roll:
Hi all
Cough can be an acid reflux cough - which I suppose you could say is a side effect of the pred? I have had it, together with mucus flying around for several months - I know it's reflux cos it's after I eat. It's getting better now - very slowly (slow, I think because the mucus comes from irritated airways as a result of oesophagitis) - as long as I eat low fat and not too much at once and unfortunately keep off the choc!! But then, I had a reflux problem before the PMR so am probably particularly sensitive.
I agree with Eileen et al - take more gin with it (or persoanlly I would go for red wine). :lol:
Isn't it strange, I never forget to 'take' my medicinal red wine :redwine: :lol: My stomach doesn't seem to have noticed the lack of Omeprazole but as I'm now down to 3mgs (starting on 2mgs next week all being well) maybe I didn't need them anyway. I started taking them when I got down to 9mgs (meaning 4 uncoated 1mg tablets and my insides played up big time). Hospital tomorrow to see my lovely Consultant, usually means a 2 hour wait, but she's worth it. Even when I paid to see her privately she was late! However, she gives everyone she sees as much time as they need, so I just take a good book, a bottle of water and my 'patient' mood :D Feeling sad today as its my friend's funeral. However, its a beautiful day and this reflects her spirit :peace: I'll let you know how the hospital visit goes, I'm confident my bloods are OK as I feel well. Take care everyone.
Lizzie
beev - only suggested G&T to get the concept of a better alcohol to non-alcohol ration! Don't like mixing my wine with anything - spritzer occasionally but I'd rather have the wine in one glass and water in another! :lol:
Lizzie Ellen - I want a doc like yours - one who will take time and listen and explain. I was spoilt years ago with docs like that. Then I moved to England. The doc with time wasn't the best of clinicians though we got on very well and he was very useful and the better one at diagnostics never has time. Oh well!! :roll:
Eileen - I know - I understood what you meant. I wouldnt dream of adding anything to red wine either - sacrilege!
Beev