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Has anyone experienced a fever with PMR?
My husband was diagnosed with PMR after 3 months of unrelenting shoulder and hip/thigh/buttocks pain following an emergency gallbladder surgery. He is 85. He had immediate relief from the 20mg of Prednisone prescribed.
During the 3 months after surgery he experienced fevers about every week to 10 days and last night had his first fever after starting Prednisone. Today he is fine and back to "normal". He is being treated by our family doctor who has seen about 10 cases of PMR during his career. He knows about the fevers and said it is one of the symptoms, but it concerns us. The wait for an appointment with a Rheumatologist is about 6 months if they indeed are even taking new patients.
Has anyone experienced fevers with PMR? If so, how long did they last?
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A mild or low grade fever is "sometimes" a symptom of PMR but not always. In medicine, it is better to never say "always" about anything.
A risk of being on Prednisone is that it will suppress a fever that is being caused by an infection. People show up in the emergency room with infections made worse because of treatment delays when they don't have a fever.
A person having fevers while on Prednisone should have a prompt medical evaluation.
There's some theories that PMR can be triggered by a virus. I think mine was triggered by a mild case of covid. Even a mild virus can cause a low grade fever and also, sometimes a fever is just a sign that the immune system is active.
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1 ReactionAt 78 ( two years ago) I had some back pain for months. When it escalated and made it impossible to lie my head on a pillow, I tried to sleep in a recliner. The next morning I had a fever (101) it sent me to my primary care dr. She immediately sent me to the lab and pain clinic for tests. If not for the fever I’m not sure how long I would have gone on tolerating the pain. It was a hot summer so I ignored the on and off fever as the prednisone dealt with the pain. Three months ago I ignored increasing lower body pain until I was unable to sit for more than 10 minutes. No fever. Wish I had the fever alert to send me back to the rheumatologist sooner!
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1 ReactionDid you tell the doctor that he was having fevers before he started on prednisone? It seems like other causes may need to be checked.
Yes, the doctors have been informed of the fevers. And, they actually asked us about them in determining the diagnosis. As I understand it, fevers are a symptom of PMR.
However…he has had multiple blood tests done over the past several weeks and recently right before the diagnosis as well as at least 3 CT scans and a recent MRI.
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1 ReactionYes, I had mild fever for several days. The pain and stiffness were major concern though.
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1 Reaction@gud2gro You did not mention if you have been diagnosed with PMR?
Two years ago
I also had a mild fever at the onset of PMR. I had another incident months later of a fever lasting a week.
At my first appointment with rheumatologist, he diagnosed me with GCA. I had been having nightsweats unusual headaches, and jaw pain but I didn't tie them all together.
@emrose
Someone on here just posted on here that they had PmR symptoms with fever.
Wondered if the fever is more of an indicator of GCA than PmR symptom?
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