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Are painful swollen hands and fingers a PMR flare?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: 3 hours ago | Replies (150)Comment receiving replies
Thats very insightful. I tend to think of
Reactive Arthritis>>RA>> PMR as a continuity of overlapping conditions with distinctions that are more than just severity or duration. But we don’t understand the ‘why’ that’s in play. Why do we get one condition versus another and what are the differences in triggers.
It interests me because my son got Reactive Arthritis following knee surgery. My Rheumy in NYC was torn whether I had PMR or sero negative RA. She had a hunch and gave me Humira in her office -and five days later i began to improve. But if she had loaded me up on prednisone I would also have improved.
So the ABC’s of this triad of conditions really is fascinating to me.
Replies to "Thats very insightful. I tend to think of Reactive Arthritis>>RA>> PMR as a continuity of overlapping..."
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"So the ABC’s of this triad of conditions really is fascinating to me."
It isn't just these three conditions.... it is all autoimmune conditions. I think they all have more in common than what makes them different. Years ago, conditions like this fell under the broad heading of rheumatism. Now there are more than 200 distinct rheumatic diseases. I don't think they are that distinct. This is especially true when you can have more than one condition going on. My rheumatologist said I had a full range of things going on.
The common denominator is inflammation. I think it boils down to what is the best way to treat autoimmune inflammation. I'm not sure prednisone is the best way. All the inflammation pathways are fascinating to me. My rheumatologist says there aren't single individual inflammation pathways. It is more like a network of pathways with cross talk, upstream and downstream regulation and all sorts of things happening.
I'm just happy that Actemra works well for me. My last infusion was 7 weeks ago because of extensive travel. My rheumatologist knew it was going to be a long time between infusions so he sent some prednisone with me in case I needed it. I didn't need the prednisone but now I'm wondering if I still need Actemra.