Precursor symptoms to PMR?

I'm quite anxious about my first appointment tomorrow, I hope she's knowledgeable and will be helpful. I keep hearing stories about PMR being misdiagnosed or inadequately treated. Hope you're able to wean down further

Hi @sticksandbugs, the PMR was intense pain from the neck down, undiagnosed for months. With GCA I had three incidents of visual disturbance, short stabbing headaches (like little electrical shots) from my ear to my nose, a dry cough at night, a sore scalp and an itchy torso with no rash. Also, no appetite. I lost about 15 pounds. When I woke up in the morning I sometimes felt faint. I had no energy and everything felt overwhelming.
I had a relapse in April and had severe neck and head pain, tender scalp again, and the feeling that everything was overwhelming again.
The first time I had it, a biopsy of the temporal artery confirmed diagnosis.

Hi @tsc, that sounds horrible. I have that same feeling of being overwhelmed, completely empathize. Exhausting. Thank you for listing the GCA symptoms, that gives me a baseline of what to watch out for

Good morning. I am new here and so glad I have found this support group. I can tell it is going to be very helpful. I struggled from July 2023- March 2024 with groin, hamstring, shoulder and arm pain and lived on Advil every day. No one did a thing for me. Finally in March 2024, when I saw my primary doc she said she thought I had PMR. I am a 65 year old woman. She started me on Predisone but the dosage dropped rapidly and in no time all the pains were back. In May 2024 I saw a rheumatolgist and she started me on 10 mg. with the plan to drop one mg. a month. I am down to 4 mg. but am having a lot of pains again. I reached out to her over the weekend. She told me to go back to 7 mg. and to taper 1 mg. every 2 weeks. Then when I get to 5 stay on it for a month. I have not had any bloodwork since March which seems a bit odd to me. It brings me comfort just to read what others are doing and to know I am not alone with this awful problem. Thank you!!

Malaise is a symptom of both PMR and GCA. Do take care,

Hi @gloriad same for me, before I saw my primary I tried Advil, then Tylenol Arthritis, then Advil and Tylenol Arthritis at the same time, then Arthrotec, with no relief at all. I finally was able to get an appointment with my primary (took a couple of weeks). I'm almost 60. See rheum for first time tomorrow. Currently on 20 mg pred daily but the side effects are unpleasant, and I still have quite a lot of pain and stiffness, so of course my thoughts are 1) It's not PMR! 2) It's PMR and something else too! 3) It's PMR but prednisone dose too low! 4) It's PMR but prednisone just doesn't work for me! Definitely down the rabbit hole on this one.

I hear you.

I had hip pain for over a year when walking and neck pain before I was diagnosed. All pain was gone after 1 day on prednisone.

Good luck with the rheum tomorrow. I have not been 100% sure that I have PMR but the doctor was not interested in looking at anything else so that is what I am treated for. I agree the side effects can be miserable. Good luck and keep us posted.

What really meant is that the Covid vaccine is what caused my issues with PMR