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Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR): Meet others & Share Your Story
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Sep 10 12:05pm | Replies (1906)Comment receiving replies
My story is similar to yours. However, my rheumatologist diagnosed me with PMR and I had textbook symptoms. I believe this was an inflammatory response to a mild case of COVID that I had in late Dec. 2022. After several weeks on prednisone, the rheumatologist changed my diagnosis to inflammatory polyarthritis due to the swelling and pain in all of the joints in my hands. He stated the arthritis had nothing to do with PMR. He prescribed hydoxychloroquine and indicated I would be on a medication for arthritis for the rest of my life. I am tolerating the hydroxychloroquine well. I have less swelling in my hands, but they continue to hurt and make daily tasks difficult almost all the time.
I wonder, do I have both PMR and arthritis? I continue to have achiness in my muscles when I sit or be still for any length of time. That seems more like PMR than arthritis to me. Is the arthritis part of my inflammatory response to the COVID infection? If and when I can reduce the inflammation will the arthritis subside?
I have posed these questions to my rheumatologist and await a response.
Do any of you have experience with these kind of issues? I am interested in your outcomes.
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It is possible to have both inflammatory arthritis and PMR. I have multiple autoimmune disorders. Having one autoimmune disorder doesn't exclude a person from having another one. In fact, it is more likely that you will develop another one over time.
My original diagnosis was more than 30 years ago. At the time, my diagnosis was called Reiter's syndrome but the name has been changed to Reactive Arthritis.
https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/1999/0801/p499.html#:~:text=Reactive%20arthritis%2C%20also%20called%20Reiter's,of%20patients%20with%20reactive%20arthritis.
"Dr. Reiter" did human experiments during World War II and the syndrome no longer bears his name. The syndrome is now call "reactive arthritis" because it is triggered by an infection.
I see no reason why a covid infection can't trigger polyarthritis. I was diagnosed with PMR about 20 years after being diagnosed with reactive arthritis. My rheumatologist said it was unfortunate to have both PMR and inflammatory arthritis.
From personal experience, I would say it is extremely difficult to distinguish one from the other. My rheumatologist asked me if I had muscle pain or joint pain. When I couldn't say definitively, she seemed to understand that it was difficult for me to know. She based her diagnosis of PMR on other things. PMR wasn't based on a fast response to prednisone because reactive arthritis responded the same way. However, my rheumatologist wanted me off prednisone in the early stages of PMR so she could see exactly what symptoms I was having.