I was left with crippling pain after the flu, then ended up dependent on steroids that had awful side-effects. But now I have hope at last

I was left with crippling pain after the flu, then ended up dependent on steroids that had awful side-effects. But now I have hope at last By Jo Waters For The Daily Mail Published: 11:54 BST, 20 August 2024 | Updated: 11:54 BST, 20 August 2024 e-mail View comments Struggling to cope with chronic pain and waking up to six times a night, Annie Icke wondered if there was a better treatment for her symptoms than the steroids she’d been prescribed by her GP for eight years. She has polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), an inflammatory auto-immune disease that mainly affects muscles and joints in the shoulders, hips, neck and wrists, causing painful stiffness.

PMR affects an estimated 200,000 people aged over 50. Although a family history of the condition raises your risk, it can be triggered by infections including some strains of flu and pneumonia . Annie developed it following a bout of flu, affecting her neck, hips, shoulders and wrists.

‘It was like I had seized up,’ recalls the 78-year-old retired PA who lives with her husband Paul, 68, a retired IT consultant, in Gloucestershire. Annie Icke has polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), an inflammatory auto-immune disease Although the steroid medication helped, their well-documented side-effects took their toll. ‘For me, they included anxiety and weepiness, lost muscle tone and damage to tendons in my shoulder, gut problems [diarrhoea and constipation], insomnia [due to the side-effects] and terrible dreams,’ says Annie.

‘And yet ev.