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Irregular heartbeat issues

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Feb 18 2:50pm | Replies (23)

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@pah17
Do you think your mother may have had it but didn’t get treatment for it? My mother was on prednisone for 15 years and I don’t want to follow that lead. It was the only known treatment at the time. She died in 1998. I definitely believe in the genetic link.
I am so happy for this site to able gain real experience with this disease. It’s so hard to go through without anyone to share the ups and downs that go along with it.

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Replies to "@pah17 Do you think your mother may have had it but didn’t get treatment for it?..."

@caroljeand My mother did not get treatment. I gave the abridged version of my mother's story. But you seem interested, so I'll try to encapsulate. In her late 50s/early 60's she began having different issues. At one point she had a rash around her middle and it was thought that she had shingles which was never treated. Then she had abdominal issues and eventually had her gall bladder removed even though her symptoms were atypical. She used to constantly rub at her wrists (? carpal tunnel) and often complained of hurting all over. At age 63 when stress was at an all time high in her life, she suffered sudden heart block and ended up with a pacemaker. Prior to that, I thought she was beginning to show signs of forgetfulness. As time went on her husband took her a few times for cortisone injections in her knees for fluid buildup. It was a slow decline for her. My brother and I would visit her yearly and in retrospect I remember that she had a wide gait and was very unsteady on her feet and complained of undefined pain. I'll always wonder if she suffered the effect of untreated Lyme disease which could have started with that rash that I was not able to see, along with the pervasive pain, heart block and dementia. She passed away in Assistive Living at age 73.
As an aside, one of her sisters became wheel chair bound and no one knew why. This generation was very private about discussing such things. I have a cousin who is in her 80s who has limited mobility and another who is my age (73) that is following my story because she's thought for a while that she has fibromyalgia. PMR is a new term to both of us. So there you have it - the reason genetics "may" be a factor in my case. I suppose it helps to know but it doesn't exactly change the course.