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@munchie

here is my insight today..i trained at a hospital that had a very solid rheumatology service..but i never saw a case of PMR..GCA many cases easily diagnosed and treated..but PMR is really an outpatient disease so a doctor in training doesn't see this often unless he is a rheumatology fellow..having said that when one has joint pains you just dont want to run to the doctor and you write it off as just getting old or garden variety arthritis..even i as a physician did this and delayed my diagnosis..after self treating with a medrol dose pack and getting better i did not pursue my symptoms until they recurred..with this history any rheumatologist worth his salt could make the diagnosis..moral of story is if you are over fifty and have sudden onset of joint pains, see a rheumatologist

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Replies to "here is my insight today..i trained at a hospital that had a very solid rheumatology service..but..."

I think "sudden onset" is the key phrase to describe this disease. Suddenly stiff and in pain in my case coincided with a very strenuous exercise routine. This misled me for a while but when it got worse and not better after 8 weeks I really wondered what on earth was wrong with me. My PMR journey is posted here so I won't go over it again, but I did see my PCP who sent me to a hematologist but I still went undiagnosed from early July until October 20. When my upper arms started hurting and I couldn't put my hair in a pony tail I knew something was up