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I hope you don't mind my response to your question. I had symptoms of GCA for a few months without knowing what they meant. I had a low grade fever that slowly increased in duration from a few hours per day to most of the day. I also had night sweats, pain in my cheekbones and around my ears, and a lot of fatigue in my jaw muscles when I was chewing. I finally went to the emergency room when I lost the vision in one eye for a few seconds. It was like looking at a blank gray wall. My vision "glitched" several more times while I was at the hospital. Those episodes were like looking at an impressionist painting where some colors disappeared and others became more dominant. After running a lot of tests, the emergency room doctor diagnosed GCA. I was admitted to the hospital for 3 days to receive daily infusions of high dose steroids. That saved my vision. In the 6 months since I've been taking prednisone and Actemra, and haven't had any more symptoms of GCA or PMR.
Replies to "I hope you don't mind my response to your question. I had symptoms of GCA for..."
How long have you been on prednisone? , and how many milligrams per day. I can’t get below 6 mg in almost 3 years.
So happy that your vision was saved 🤗
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Wow ... you are fortunate. Did you have PMR first?
I was diagnosed with PMR a long time ago. My rheumatologist still asks me about having symptoms of GCA. She says that she is "required" to ask me the questions.
I usually respond by asking her how would I know if I had GCA. I have the symptoms of GCA but I'm diagnosed with uveitis and trigeminal neuralgia. I'm glad someone can differentiate the symptoms.
I regularly see an ophthalmologist because uveitis causes visual disturbances and potentially vision loss. My ophthalmologist always reassures me that there is no evidence of GCA when he looks at my optic nerve. I have other eye problems but fortunately not GCA.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/uveitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20378734
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Trigeminal neuralgia caused such incredible facial pain that I couldn't speak for myself whenever I went to the emergency room. I felt that facial pain but attempting to speak only made it worse. I could only gesture with my thumb to respond yes or no when I was asked questions. My wife would respond and provide more details as needed when a doctor asked me why I couldn't talk.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trigeminal-neuralgia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353344
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An ironic thing happened when my rheumatologist got approval for Actemra. Since I didn't have GCA as a diagnosis he needed to seek approval before I could try Actemra. My medical records were carefully reviewed and the recommendation was to treat me "as if" I had GCA. My rheumatologist was instructed to follow the guidelines for Actemra use for patients with GCA.