Pain in both hands, wrists, feet, knees, toes, chest, left elbow, both upper pelvis. Frequency and intensity is on the increase.

I have been charting all of this on an Excel graph and I have 12 weeks records I can show the rheumy nurse when I see her on Thursday. The spikes over the last week speak for themselves.

Since a big one - 3 or 4 months but I never have a day without pain and I have had lots of spikes in activity.

Hi Gogs

You are right - I am not under control yet. The Rheumy nurse has access to consultants who can prescribe, and she can also get me an accelerated appointment with the rheumatologist.

So, I saw the rheumy nurse today for a routine blood test and we talked about the flare.

I have made various abortive attempts to come off the steroid so we can get the required MRI scan of my lower back showing inflammation, to justify Humira. A 5 mg step reduction failed (in the sense that symptoms emerged) at about a dose of 15mg a day. I went back up to 20mg and tried a 2.5 mg step reduction which also failed at about 15mg. Back up to 20 mg and 1mg per 14 days step reduction resulted in failure at 16mg, accompanied by a severe flare in the second week. So, today, the rheumy nurse told me to go back up to 17mg again.

I will do so to get relief from the symptoms, but I have emailed my consultant to find out if there is any other course of action because at the current rate I will be on high dose steroids for 2 years, which can't be good.

Let's see what he says.