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I am on ACTEMRA for my giant Cell Arteritis but it seems like my PMR ?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Nov 20 12:45pm | Replies (38)Comment receiving replies
Thanks for your response. I have been on prednisone for 3 years. My last dose was 5mg but each time I reached that level I had a flare up and needed to go back to 10 mg. That’s the reason I wanted to give ACTEMRA a go.
I have been on ACTEMRA for 3 months and gradually tapered my prednisone to zero as of two days ago.
For the last 4 days I have had severe itching all over my body but especially my scalp and a flare up of my psoriasis on my scalp. My bones are hurting and I have a hard time walking. I am not sleeping well mainly because of the itching. I definitely feel worse than when I was on prednisone. I think that I may have an allergic reaction to ACTEMRA and at this point I feel that if I have to stay on ( mg prednisone I might be better off?
Replies to "Thanks for your response. I have been on prednisone for 3 years. My last dose was..."
Last time I lowered my prednisone too fast I got severe itching I had to go back to a higher dose and do a slow taper. I am now tapering at 1/2 per month. It may not be the actemra just too fast going off the prednisone
I have heard that calcium citrate lotion helps with itching.
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It is interesting that you had a flare of psoriasis after stopping Prednisone. Has anyone ever discussed the possibility of multiple autoimmune conditions?
One reason I said "long story short" was because I had a flare of uveitis as soon as I tapered off Prednisone the first time while I was on Actemra. Uveitis is another autoimmune condition I have. It is "associated" with Reactive Arthritis (ReA) but not with PMR.
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and reactive arthritis (ReA) are different types of inflammatory arthritis. PsA is a condition associated with the skin disease psoriasis while ReA occurs in response to an infection.
Has anyone discussed the possibility that you might have psoriatic arthritis? I'm not saying you don't have PMR/GCA because there is no reason why you can't have both PMR/GCA and Psoriatic Arthritis.
The long story that I didn't want to get into was that I needed 60 mg of prednisone to control the flare of uveitis I had as soon as I tapered off prednisone the first time. Uveitis can cause vision loss and is treated as a medical emergency just like GCA.
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/uveitis#:~:text=What%20is%20uveitis%3F,healthy%20tissue%20in%20your%20eyes.
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My rheumatologist stopped Actemra because my opthalmologist wanted me on a different biologic instead of Actemra. My ophthalmologist started me on Humira which was "optimal treatment" for uveitis.
After uveitis was in remission, I was stuck on 15 mg of Prednisone again along with Humira because PMR flared up again. When you have multiple autoimmune conditions my rheumatologist said it becomes extremely difficult to "optimally treat" everything.
My rheumatologist said Actemra works for PMR and Humira works to prevent uveitis flares but I couldn't take both Actemra and Humira. He gave me the option of Actemra or Humira. I chose Actemra and tapered off prednisone in 3 months the second time.