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Medications for Temporal Arteritis/Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA)
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jul 7 8:52am | Replies (353)Comment receiving replies
I was 74 when I was diagnosed. My symptoms started at the beginning of April. I went to three doctors and no one knew what was wrong with me. After a month of not being diagnosed, my husband said that we needed to go to Mayo. We drove to Mayo (2 1/2 hours away) the morning of 2 May and only waited about 10 min at the emergency room. They took me in and did a CAT scan of the head and took blood. I was diagnosed and started on Prednisone in about 1 1/2 hours. I was seen by a Neurologist and she did a thorough exam and started me on 60 mg of Prednisone. My biopsy was scheduled for the next day with a plastic surgeon. Mayo took care of me for my breast cancer in 2013 so we knew how wonderful they are.
My veins on the right side of my head/face were swollen. I was taking Motrin because of the swelling which was probably bad because it masked the symptoms. Because of the Motrin, I did not have pain. I was taking the Motrin twice a day. With the Prednisone, I have gained 12 lbs. with swelling on each side of the neck, swelling in the stomach and midriff and a lot of swelling in the face. The Sed Rate seems to be the important test. MIne was 37 which was not extremely high considering some people are over 100. The 37 was enough for the doctor to start the Prednisone. Within 3 hours the pain was gone. I will always be grateful for the care that was given to me that day. I could have gone blind.
Replies to "I was 74 when I was diagnosed. My symptoms started at the beginning of April. I..."
HI, Tinkerbell, I admitted myself to the Emergency Room yesterday afternoon after reading what you had to say on the 26th pertaining to your husband's research and also called my doctor's office...they said to go to ER if it was that bad. Well, I got all of the blood tests and it really helped being in the ER to calm my nervous system down. The blood work all came back and from what I was told it was good. My sed rate was 29....only 9 points higher that the range of 0-20, which the Physician's Asst. said was not that much elevated to be concerned about. So they told me I could go home and come back tomorrow, (Friday) for my regularly scheduled CTScan of the head, as it would bill at a lesser rate than thru the ER. I went back today and had the CTScan and my doctor should get the results early next week. Today, Friday, I actually had no pain whatsoever in my head the entire day without taking an OTC meds. I did not take any pain medication for the last three days after reading what you had told me and I thank you for that additional bit of info. The PA at the hospital said I may have a migraine. I told her that I very seldom if ever get head aches my entire life....I just dismissed that comment.
I will let you know next week when I speak with my doctor and he has all of the test results back. Once again, thank you for your guidance with this situation....I really appreciate it.
Hi - so happy to hear you did go to the emergency room. As I told you before my Sed Rate was 37 and they decided that was high enough to start me on medication. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Unfortunately, the only positive diagnosis is with the biopsy. I hope you do not have Giant Cell Arteritis. It is a long journey once you get started on the medication. I am looking at 1 1/2 years at the least amount of time. Do let me know what happens.
I will let you know as soon as I hear anything, Tinkerbell.
Still hopeful my rash/itch will one day soon be gone.
Wow that is an interesting story. What is your sed rate and crp now?
@crhp194 - How was your Arteritis found?
I am confused . No big shock for me! I have temporal arterieres is this what most if you have ?
It was found during open heart surgery to repair an aneurysm. The doctors took a biopsy then and that’s when it was found.
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Hello @barba -- The reason your post has a lot of garbled text information in it is that you clicked Reply to the message from Connect in your email program. Instead I would recommend going to the bottom of the email message and clicking the View & Reply button in the message. It will take you directly to the discussion and allow you to post your message there.
John