Hello to everyone! I'm new here and am very excited I found you all. This looks like a great forum! I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there who's trying to lose weight that has the muscle disease Polymyositis? It's quite rare. However, since we have to take steroids to control it (Prednisone), I'm hoping that I'm not the only one here. I'm 30, live in Canada and am not able to work.

Dawn

What exectly is polymyositus?

Hi Dawn!
I have polyneuropathy, but the original diagnosis two years ago was polymyositis. I was on prednisone for a while and the problem with prednisone is that it just plays havok with weight. It does control the pain but I lost a bunch of weight very quickly and then just as quickly boomeranged up higher than I was. I just quit looking at the scale. I knew I was doing the best I could.

What I learned from my experience was that I just have to eat right and exercise and not stress over the scale. There were days that I couldn't exercise because of the pain, so I'd just do chair exercises...wiggle my feet, wave my arms around, curl with 2 lb weights, roll my shoulders.

It is annoying having a rare disease, particularly when you don't know anyone else who knows what it's like. I just found your post. I hope you are peeking back.

As a definition, in general: Polymyositis is an inflammation of muscles, most particularly the leg muscles. It manifests itself with weakness and pain. Polyneuropathy is a nerve dysfunction and manifests itself with weakness and pain in the legs with a balance problem.