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I don't think I was misdiagnosed with PMR in May 2023. Back then I didn't have Morton's neuroma, Raynaud's syndrome, trigger finger or a rash. They came last year following a flare. Diagnoses aren't always clear cut. I got the impression that my new diagnosis might have been Lupus if I'd answered a few questions differently. Lupus was certainly mentioned.
Connective tissue disease just means it affects more things than the usual PMR places in the body. It's still autoimmunity with the same symptoms as PMR, but a bit more widespread. I did say to the rheumatologist that it must be hard trying to put all these autoimmune conditions into neat boxes with certain names when so many autoimmune symptoms overlap and no person has exactly the same disease as another person. He gave me a glazed blank stare with no reply. 🙂
I share your reservations about Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine). There's no hurry for a decision on it so I'm keeping an open mind at this stage.
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"It's still autoimmunity with the same symptoms as PMR, but a bit more widespread."
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I said the same thing about reactive arthritis and PMR.
Reactive arthritis wasn't too widespread and mostly confined to my lower back and knees. Unlike PMR inflammatory arthritis causes damage to the joints. When uveitis gets involved it can cause vision loss.
My uveitis was an aggressive type and required a massive dose of prednisone to quiet it down but I could taper off quickly. The routine was 60 and up to 100 mg but back to zero in a month or two so "short term" prednisone. I had more than 30 flares of uveitis over 20 years until the flares stopped after PMR was diagnosed.
The flares of uveitis and inflammatory arthritis mostly stopped because I took Prednisone daily. The characteristic shoulder pain of PMR persisted for a couple of years but then it mostly stopped.
Unfortunately, the pain was still widespread when I didn't take enough prednisone. When someone asked me where it hurt my usual answer was "everywhere." That answer wasn't very helpful so I had to narrow it down some. Then I would say my shoulders or somewhere else hurt the most but it depended on the day.
All the pain was lumped together as PMR . Since I didn't have any uveitis flares and minimal back pain that was reduced to a "history of" reactive arthritis and uveitis but the labels were never removed.