What I have noticed is that most pruners are too big, clunky, and tiring to use even for a woman like me with big hands and only a touch of arthritis (so far). If a smaller and lighter tool will help you, Bahco pruners ("secateurs") are available in a small size and are the best totally functional ones I can recommend. The Bahco "Ergo" series offers pruners in 3 sizes: small, medium, large. The small size fits my hand perfectly, is very light and compact, and can be used all day long with no strain -- every other part of my body may ache, but not my hand or wrist. I've been using them for more than 6 years now and currently have 3 (so I can always find at least one to use!) of the "PX-S2" model (the "S" stands for the size, "small" -- the medium-sized model would be PX-M2). The other model of pruner in Bahco's "Ergo" series is one with rotating handles (PXR-S2), which I haven't tried (but agree with Diane that Fiskar's with rotating handles are really bad -- a pair my mother gave me some years ago made my hand and wrist hurt almost immediately, were incredibly heavy and awkward to use). Bahcos are not the cheapest, but are very high-quality (made in France) and all parts are replaceable. Seems to be a number of online sources, including, of course, Amazon -- but make sure the product offered is the size wanted. (original link below didn't work, so I've put in another one -- not quite so specific, but if you click on the "Brochure" button there, you get a PDF with every detail possible) Here is a link that might be useful: Bahco This post was edited by catspa on Sat, Jul 27, 13 at 12:06

I was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatica about three or four years ago and started on 15 mg of prednisone. The pain was gone almost overnight. I was in such pain I couldn't lift my arm to comb my hair, so for me prednisone was a miracle drug. I didn't have any side effects except increased appetite which I managed to keep under a bit of control, although I did put on a bit of weight, but I think I could have managed that increased appetite better. Since starting on 15 mg I was gradually weaned down to 12.5 mg then 10. When I got down to 5 mg. I decreased it by 1 mg. per month and so on. I went up and down for about a year, whenever I had pain I upped my dose to the previous one. I was on each dose for a month before I dropped the dosage. Now I am finally over my polymyalgia and am down to 1 mg. and as of Dec. 1 will be alternating between 1 and 1/2 mg. My doctor told me it would disappear between 3-5 years and thankfully that is what has happened. Hope the same for you. Don't be afraid to increase or decrease your prednisone, but do it very slowly. The disease will go away eventually. Good luck and keep in touch with us.

Thanks for inquiring. I had my appointment and he is questioning his original diagnosis as he says I do not fit the complete pattern. neither am I following the expected prednisone results. However, he can't figure it out. He has put me on 5 mg of prednisone for 3 months and has also added another drug, which he says may/maynot help and won't know for 2 or 3 months. I understand it is a drug used for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. I am feeling much better but now have developed a cough that is coming from my boots, almost. I tried to get an appoinment with my family Dr. but couldn't get in for 5 days so went to the walk-in-clinic. I have a history, since childhood of bronchits and phneumonia, so a 5 day wait wasn't a good idea. The appoinemnt for the GP is to-morrow and as I still have the cough I am going to keep it. The Dr. at the walk-in-clinic said it could be from alergies, which also flared up, or it could be a virus. I'm thinking it is probably a bit of both, as it didn't go away with antihistamines. I do really appreciate you asking. I'm not familiar with fibromyalgia, but undersand it is very unpleasant as well. ivamae

Alisande-Thank you for bringing this back up.I read your OP and was going to go back and write down all the foods that you posted as having solanine and do some research and just never got around to it.It's interesting because DH and I both have joint pain and we eat a lot of the foods you mentioned.My joint pain has been worse the last couple of weeks but I attributed it to the weather.I am wondering now if it could be due to the case of oranges and grapefruit I bought from a peddler three weeks ago and have been eating at least 2 or 3 of each daily since! Ya think???LOL I'm going to eat the last grapefruit in a few minutes then that's it! I am going to try the ACV capsules first and see what happens.Will buy them tomorrow. Hayjud-I had rheumatic fever as a child also but never connected it with my joint pain now.Duuh!LOL Sue-DH and I are diabetic.We control it with our diet.I use Splenda to sweeten anything that I use to sweeten with sugar.I know a lot of people say the taste is different,and it may be somewhat,but my family can't tell the difference.I have found that using a little less than you would of sugar is best. NSAIDS scare me.LOL