Polymyalgia Rheumatica - I was diagnosed with PMR 8 months ago and was started on prednisolone....

I was diagnosed with PMR two years ago. Prednisone started at 40 mg controlled the pain well until I tapered below 10 mg. I would flare up slowly when getting to 5 then 3 mg. I have been seeing two rheumatologists in separate practices. One wanted me to get off prednisone and prescribed only 3 mg. He said in his experience he didn't see that methotrexate helped very many PMR patients. The other doctor pressed me to try methotrexate for 9 months. She wouldn't prescribe more than 5 mg so I finally agreed and have taken 10 mg of methotrexate once a week for three weeks. I have gotten successively sicker with pain and immobility even though she upped prednisone temporarily to 15 mg. I called the nurse two days ago to say my symptoms were almost as bad as before my diagnosis and I could barely walk through the house. The doctor said to INCREASE methotrexate to 12.5 mg and split it evening and next morning. I took 5 mg and felt so bad I decided not to take the remainder. Don't know anything about that third drug you mentioned, but I am suspecting the methotrexate has worsened my PMR rather than helping. Anything that causes swelling makes me worse, and it seems like many drugs cause swelling. Maybe someone else can relate their experience in getting off methotrexate. My other thought is that maybe you were never allowed enough prednisone in the first few months to knock down the pain and control the inflammation before adding other drugs. I do pray you find some answers and get to feeling better.

I have had PMR for almost a year now. When I was first diagnosed my doctor prescribed 15 mg of prednisone daily. I was pain free within 24 hours. Since then my dosage has been very gradually reduced to 5 mg per day. So far so good. some very slight stiffness in my hands in the morning but is gone by the afternoon. My understanding is that with a diagnosis of PMR one of the deciding factors to confirm it is in fact PMR is that prednisone(prednisolone) provides relief with in 48 hours. I would consider getting another doctor's opinion to confirm that in fact what you have is PMR. I wish you all the best in achieving a solution to alleviate the pain.