Hi there. When I started dosing down of prednisone (with nothing as a back up as no one knew I had PM) I started losing my appetite and having problems chewing! I had to start eating soft foods as that's all I could chew. What are you taking for medications?

i've been having a painful jaw and therefore can not open my mouth wide enough to insert many food items. biting a sandwich is very difficult and having a normal bite on a fork is even difficult to pass through my mouth.

I experience the jaw problems as well. Takes really wanting to eat that sandwich, doesn't it? :o) I find that things that really need chewing make my jaw start to hurt. Very annoying - but hey, I'm just glad I can eat and the food is staying down!

I, too, have jaw problems. It's painful to chew and difficult to open my mouth wide enough to insert a forkful of food. However, before my initial diagnosis in 2008, things were so bad that I had to lower my head, then use my fingers to open my mouth wide enough to insert a grape. At that time, the neuro said that the PM had progressed up my neck and into the jaw. Once the prednisone kicked in, things got better. But I still have some jaw problems. I think it goes with the territory. I just watch what I eat--making open-face sandwiches (instead of normal ones), choosing softer meats (like chicken and ground meat), and taking smaller bits of food and cutting up meat and things into smaller pieces. I'm thinking of purchasing a mouthpiece for nighttime use, because I find that my jaw slides around at night and hurts enough to awaken me. Maybe that will provide some lessening of the discomfort.

jfreeze-- It could be the prednisone. I am in the process of coming down from it. I'm on 5mg, and I have had a rough time dropping the dosage. My appetite has been pretty small, and I've been kind of nauseous.

It's just so weird to me that I have jaw weakness, but no problems with my hips or arms!

Yeah, I would really watch that appetite and difficulty chewing. You might not be able to lower your prednisone by that much. I always had a problem lowering mine and it was coming off it entirely that landed me in the hospital.

Hi, Jaw weakness is one of the signs I have whenever my PM is giving me problems. I just call my doctor and he would rise my prednisone for about a week or two then i would be ok. So maybe you need to tell you doctor about your jaw weakness. hope this helps

I have also had the jaw problems and I had it before I started on prednisone.....sometimes it is so hard to chew. It was better when I was on the higher dose of pred but now as I reduce it (down to 7.5) I am having all kinds of probs. I am also having probs with digesting. Last night I had chicken and noodles and was sick all night long. Indigestion, fever bloating and I just wanted to sleep.....yucky feeling.

Hugs!!!!

I had problems chewing too before I started Prednisone. Since then, it has gotten much better although sometimes food (like steak) is just too much chewing for me.

Yep, I have that sometimes as well. I am a big fan of my Cuisinart... you should see the looks I get at a high end restaurant ;-}

Capt bob do you mean you take your cuisinart with you to restaurants? If so that is ingenious.....lol!!!!

I have also had a lot of problem opening my mouth and chewing. I wasn't sure if this was related to DM or not. It's hard for me to bite into a cheeseburger or anything thicker than maybe a slice of pizza. I am not on prednisone anymore, but I used to be about 6 years ago. :)