Stiff at Dawn: Polymyalgia Rheumatica Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe polymyalgia rheumatica. Writers describe waking wrong — the shoulders, the hips, the hour it takes to become usable, the shirt that cannot be put on — and the fear that this is what old age is now. There is putting a name to it: the raised inflammatory markers, the differentials ruled out, and the striking response to steroids that is itself part of the diagnosis. Then life on the tablet: the energy and appetite and sleeplessness, the bone protection, the blood sugar, the face that changes. Writers describe the taper in detail — the milligram at which everything came back, the years it took, the relapses — and the constant vigilance for giant cell arteritis, with several accounts of the jaw claudication or visual symptoms that triggered an emergency. Later chapters cover steroid-sparing agents and the answers that did not hold.

Who it's for

For anyone newly diagnosed with PMR, patients partway through a difficult taper, and readers who need to know the warning signs of giant cell arteritis.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 278 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.