Polymyalgia Rheumatica

This could be a bit of an epic post!!!! 
Polymyalgia Rheumatica....what a mouthful....its a nasty illness that affects mainly the over 65's..unfortunately I have it as well at my age !
  It has been creeping up on me for at least 4 years that I can trace..its been so easy to put down aches and pains to age,weight,cold weather etc etc when in reality it has been PMR.

 Ive had aches and pains in my legs and hips for ages-years in fact but it hasn't stopped me doing anything-in fact the only times I have never noticed it much  is during my workshops when my mind is so focused on what I'm doing that I haven't noticed anything much amiss--until we have stopped and its been time to get in the van to go home! Then in recent months Bill has had to help me get up the step into it!
Then the past 6 months or so its been hard to lift my arms at times and I had to keep stopping and painting in short bursts... 
My knees have been the worst thing to deal with--they didn't like going up and down steps and stairs,off chairs, getting in and out of the car has been hard at times as well--at its worst I have been unable to drive at all!  The pain in them was dreadful..
But the strange thing is Ive always been able to walk for miles on the flat--so it has been a bit of a puzzle when Ive been to the doctors with the symptoms.X-rays revealed nothing at all..so I was just taking the maximum dose of painkillers and anti-inflammatory which was doing very little at all..

The illness reached its peak a 6 weeks ago when it suddenly went into my back and neck with a vengence--I couldnt move at all in bed, couldnt get out of bed or off the sofa---I couldnt hardly move..Bill put the tens machine on my back for me with no effect--I was in such agony..so back to the doctors I went...
She gave me some extra strong anti-inflammatory tablets which worked ok and took the edge of the pain but gave me the most awful tinnitus you can imagine,,after just 2 days and 4 tablets I had 6 whistling kettles going off inside my head...it was awful...and constant--no let up at all.
After checking them out on the internet I found that it is a side effect of the tablets and could be a permanent thing I would have to live with....  not  a great prospect at all..
I stopped taking them and went back to another doctor who sorted out blood tests and 2 days later I was diagnosed with PMR....at least that is what the new doc suspected I had!
She gave me some very strong steroids (20mg) to take and said if it was PMR they would be like a miracle and I was to ring her in 3 days time and let her know how I got on.Well I went from not being able to get off the sofa without Bill pushing me up to shampooing the carpets right through the house 2 days later! A miracle was an understatment to say the least!

With the pain gone all I had to contend with was the bloody tinnitus--in many ways it was worse than the pain--it drove me up the wall--never going away-sometimes going quiter and playing games with me as several times I thought it was going away--only to come back with a vengence..I had to resort to wearing earplugs when drying my hair and hoovering as any loud noise started it off worse again...
Anyway back to the docs I went after 2 weeks and another blood test---feeling quite on top of the world and with NO PAIN at all only to be told that the steroids have made my blood sugars go through the roof--so the doc told me to cut them back to 15mg and see if it made any differnce to them.
Well after just one day at that dose I was almost back to square one with the pain--has 15 mg on Saturday and couldnt move on the Sunday
It would seem after speaking with some very knowledgeable people on a PMR support group that the steroids need to be cut back VERY VERY slowly or the pain comes back because the tablets havent had time to work properly.So I upped them to 17.5mg and have stayed on that since then -the pain is held at bay--its not as good as when I was taking the full 20mg dose but its not too bad and it hasnt stopped me doing anything I want to..

Ive been back to the docs again last week and she wants me down to 10mg asap--which is going to be impossible to do quickly..
There is no way Im going back to being in that pain again--and no point in taking the steroids if they are not ging to be doing their job of clearing the inflamation in all my muscles...It looks like its going to be a bit of a battle between my PMR and my diabeties and my doctor  until I see the rheumatlogist early next month! 
The good news is the tinnitus has finaly gone away by the look of it---it gradualy got quieter and with time in between episodes this last week and today its stayed away -was there when I woke up for a few minutes but has stayed away-so Im confident its gone for good.

The good news is that PMR can and does burn itself out in a few years--and I figure as Ive had it for at least 4 years its reached its peak and will go quickly now Im on the right medication--fingers crossed anyway.

Ive been lucky that I have never had one of the other bad symptoms of it and that is the tiredness--its never effected me at all---burning the candle at both ends as usual...

Every blood test Ive had for the past 4 years has shown the markers that indicate PMR were raised--but because I had other issues going on like an abcsess the results were always put down to that....anyway its being sorted out now thank goodness--looks like the docs will have to treat the diabetes as well as the PMR as it will be impossible to get down the steroids as quickly as they want me to just due to the nature of the illness....have had a bit of a run in already with one of the docs about it--but its my body and Ive got to do it at a pace that is right for me..hopefully the specialist will sort me out once and for all soon!
I'm  feeling great  now and can go up and down the stairs like a 2 year old--we have walked miles today on holiday...and thats how it must stay!
Sorry about the epic length of this post..but lots of my students have been asking how I am and I promised them Id let them know when I knew myself what was happening!
So Im noise and pain free now-and enjoying a week at Aberystwyth where I can relax and rest until Friday--we have a class of 10 so far for Saturdays Stormy Poppies class.