Can PMR (Polymyalgia Rheumatica) be induced by vaccine?

I had a HUGE flare 2 days after senior flu shot and it produced 12 days of fevers up to 100.9, chills, sweats, and a "sick body feeling." Not so much the PMR pain which seems well controlled on 10 mg prednisone. I ended up in the hospital because it was unclear if I was having an infection or not...and my white count was definitely elevated. I had had a diverticulitis with abscess admission to hospital a month prior so they were unclear if there was a smoldering infection. I was started on IV Antibiotics for 4 days. It did not help shift anything. I have just had about 40 lab tests...as I have a condition called MGUS (a precursor to multiple myeloma) but it can stay benign OR it can develop. I am 77. Had stage 4 pancreatic cancer 5.5 years ago. I am clear completely of that and was given back then 2 months to live! I think I have 9 lives! Grateful. And struggling with the sick body feelings. My fevers left after 12 days but my body feels like I am sick...no energy. and feeling like you do when you have an infection. So, today I will get the results of the raft of lab tests. We'll see what's up but I am pretty convinced the flu shot created this situation. I was to get Moderna booster but I think given this response I will shy away from triggering my immune system further!

Hello Microbe1943 -- Your brief history is amazing! I can't imagine how resilient you must be to make it through all you've been diagnosed with and suffered through. Since PMR followed within 2 days of my senior flu shot, I now have the same unwillingness to take the "booster" shot for Covid for fear of setting my "overactive" immune system into even higher gear -- I already had 4 other immune-related conditions. The idea that ALL 65 and older individuals need the adjuvanted quadrivalent flu vaccine seems like WAY too broad a category. There is no proof that a 'pumped up' flu shot DOES trigger a body storm in immune-compromised individuals, and there never WILL be proof unless follow-up studies are done that specifically target that population. Nevertheless, however 'wonderful' the booster may be on its own, my system had a melt-down following the flu vaccine and I just can't take the chance of creating further havoc. Only a month went by before I was diagnosed with PMR, but during that time as the disabling pain spread and grew in ferocity I had reached the stage of 'not wanting to live like this any longer'. Thankfully, prednisone (with all it's side effects) does mostly manage the pain and I've been able to resume many of my old activities - but I dare not risk pushing my body farther than it is able to go. You have weathered SO MUCH and I admire your mental toughness and general attitude! Thank you for sharing your story.

Hi dose flu vaccine in Oct. 2021 witn inability to move my legs at 3am the following morning…. Diagnosed with PMR three weeks later. Coincidence??

Oddly enough, it may well be coincidence because PMR is a "sudden emergence" condition. Frustrating not to be able to tie down the "lose ends" but although the triggers for PMR are not identified, it's emergence pattern is well established (so says my research and my doctor). It comes on literally overnight and can grow in intensity over a period of hours or days, case depending. One day you're feeling the age you always were -- the next day you're at least 82 and feeling more enfeebled by the minute.

I, myself, have been very suspicious of my PMR being the result of a senior flu shot since it began 2-3 days following the shot, last Novmber. However, I've read and studied and thought more about it, and I really can't make a direct connection (though in some ways that would be satisfying). Because the Covid shots and the flu shots introduce a very specific viral target, they are not capable (theoretically) of being able to trigger a wide-spreading immune response -- which is what PMR is believed to be. This is the data the pro-vaccine folk understand and rely on. The rest of us, who struggle with PMR which appeared subsequent to "a jab" of one sort or another, are left wondering. The trouble is that PMR has historically "simply appeared" without identified causation, so for many of us at this point in time at least, it's proximity to "vaccination" is part of our history, but not necessarily or even likely to be connected.

I'm sorry you are having to deal with this miserable condition and I have been where you are - wondering about connections with shots. Certainly I am leary of taking more "vaccinations" for flu I've never contracted in the past. I think I'd trade getting the flu for up-to-5-years-of-PMR any day. And COVID shots? No relation to PMR in my experience, but people are unique and the territory is uncharted as we sail through it. I wish you the very best in care and recovery, friend.

Laurel

I had a similar experience after receiving the Shingrix vaccine on March, 27 2021. I’ve been suffering with PMR ever since the first week of April 2021. I am convinced it is linked to the vaccine.

Mine started suddenly overnight 10 days after my second jab. But when I think about it my neck gave me huge problems all summer after the first jab in May. I believe there is a direct connection and also, 2 other people I know have been diagnosed with PMR over the last month, which probably coincides with their jabs too. Booster? Not me...not yet. Not until this settles down. It has taken 5 months to get a diagnosis, prednisone is working and I'm not messing that up. I have never had a flu vax of any kind and I'm 72. PMR makes me feel my age, otherwise I'm still 40. LOL.

So sorry to hear this...it was very difficult to get anyone to hear me so I suffered with it for 5 months without a diagnosis. Feel it's directly related to the Covid jabs, as began 10 days after. Does not run in the family. Never even heard of it. Prednisone has been miraculous for me. Too bad I had to wait so long to get on it. Most of what I learned I had to research myself on line (sadly) and as it turns out...I was right at a time when I didn't want to be. 🙂 All the best to you m'friend ~ Deb

It IS frustrating not to have anything "proved" which connects the "jabs" with PMR isn't it? I support anyone who is wary of further "vaccines" (of any sort) and count myself among them. And I am SO sorry you had to wait 5 miserable months to get a diagnosis. Without that, medication to alleviate the pain and disability is impossible to come by. I only struggled for a month and was at the point of conceding I no longer wanted to live if I had to bear the crippling and pain when my doctor diagnosed me and started me on prednisone. 5 months would have been an absolute nightmare!!

My difficulty in coming down FIRMLY on the conviction that PMR follows vaccines for some people, is that as with ALL sudden onset conditions, they always follow SOMETHING. How many people have had, say, a heart attack after working out, or eating, or trying a new medication? Even if many did (and probably have in the course of history) no direct connection can be drawn. That may be a poor analogy, but it's all that occurs to me at the moment. I see the potential connection, and as a result, am not interested in further experimentation with any vaccine -- I just wish someone with medical skill and resources would make an effort to study and research the issue, for all our sakes. But then, of course, we'd have the great difficulty of knowing whether to trust what conclusions they promoted. Another (not very amusing) LOL. Best of luck with your PMR settling down.

Yes, my PMR symptoms emerged within 2 days of my senior flu shot in October. It only took 1 month (1 VERY miserable month) to get a diagnosis of PMR. The jury is still out in my mind on any direct link because sudden onset conditions like PMR are always going to follow "something", and for a certain percentage of us, it will be a vaccination of some sort. However, I think the possibility is there - especially since they don't know WHAT triggers PMR. Frustrating for us all. I wish you the best in managing your PMR - that you may be one of the fortunate ones whose bout is short rather than extended.

My belief is that they already have studied it and know, but of course won't tell us. The PMR has settled down very well. Progress every day. I almost gave up as well, because I could not face getting up in the morning. Last night was my first "sleep right thru" night in months and months. On to our remissions....