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← Return to Medications for Temporal Arteritis/Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA)
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Medications for Temporal Arteritis/Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA)
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Apr 1 8:19pm | Replies (342)Comment receiving replies
I was diagnosed at Mayo on 2 May 2017. I am coming up on 1 year and it has been a long road with 6 more months. I had the biopsy on 3 May and had the diagnosis of GCA. The biggest problem has been the swelling and the weight gain. i was started on 60 mg. of Prednisone and am now down to 6 mg. I had one relapse going from 20 to 17 1/2. I had to go back to 20 mg. and then went to 10 mg. - 1 mg. at a time for 2 weeks between each step. I will be having a ACTH Stimulation test at Mayo on 22 May. This will tell me if my adrenal gland is going to start working again. This was suggested by my Endocrinologist in Orlando before she moved to Texas. The Endocrinology Department at Mayo is handling this for the Neurology Department. I like to look at the bright side since they diagnosed me before I went blind.
Replies to "I was diagnosed at Mayo on 2 May 2017. I am coming up on 1 year..."
@lofa - I know you are so happy to have gotten down to 7 mg. I am on 4 now but when I got to 6 mg I had some problems and decided to go to 6 1/2 that worked fine and now I am going down 1/2 mg. every 2 weeks. If I have any more problems they want me to go down 1/2 mg each month. I hope you can continue down with no more problems.
It will be interesting 1/2 may be an alternative . The crp dropped 5 points and is at 7.9 and sed rate 40.
@lofa - I have never had a CRP. My Sed Rate was 38 when I was diagnosed and my last Sed Rate was 8. I read that you should not go down more than 10% so this has been working for me.
Yes, l have seen him, the cataracts have stsrted, we're keeping an eye on that.....l am 63 and was diagnosed in Feb this year
I'm not sure...mine is both
Both meaning temporal arterieres and arthritics ?
@robynann - I had cataract surgery when I was 70. The easiest surgery I have ever had. Now you just need to get better and worry about that later.
yes, so true.....I try not to think about it all too much, I take every day as a blessing
I had cataract surgery on both eyes last summer when I was 69. I agree it was an easy surgery both times. I had lung cancer surgery at the end of May this year and I’m still trying to recover from it. @marylou705
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So good to have people to talk to about this . Have not found anyone and been looking for awhile . Your case sounds similar to mine however no problem with eyes. Except have to take two kinds of drops for high eye pressure.