Two weeks in, frightened by meds, PMR and COVID Booster Shot

As I understand it, you should only be tapering at a pace where you have no or almost no pain. That tells you the prednisone is working. It sounds like you’re not taking enough. We all appreciate how quickly you want to get rid of it but it’s going to take lots of time. Good you will get more eyes in the problem since autoimmune diseases are tricky.

As I understand it, you should only be tapering at a pace where you have no or almost no pain. That tells you the prednisone is working. It sounds like you’re not taking enough. We all appreciate how quickly you want to get rid of it but it’s going to take lots of time. Good you will get more eyes in the problem since autoimmune diseases are tricky.
COVID shots/boosters are possible PMR triggers but not always. Follow your gut. ❤️

I was in exactly the same situation as you. Diagnosed in August 2022, started at 20mg, now down to 7.5. I had the same fears about the booster even though I'm pro vaccine, but I was scared because I'd heard that the slightest medical "event" could trigger a flare up. Everyone is so different, but, I'm happy to tell you that I had the Pfizer booster and a flu shot at the same time, one on each arm and it was fine. No reaction at all, not even the usual ache around injection site. Nothing!! I say go for it. The benefits far outweigh the risks.

Your tapering seems awfully fast, be careful. I've tapered slowly, down 2.5mg every month-6 weeks on average.

Good luck - this is a miserable disease but we can beat it! I'm confident of that.

Thanks for this information. I am going to ask to take LDN and try to get off prednisone. Are you taking any pred now?

I, too, was very healthy and vigorous before my second Pfizer vaccine a year ago at age 74. Always kept up on all vaccines and booster, including flu and shingles shots, with no side effects, but that second booster last year seems to have triggered my PMR. Now I'm afraid to get any more and hope I'm sufficiently protected. Also, I would advise being careful about tapering too fast. I tried that and ended up having to start all over again because the pain came back. There is a method called the dead slow plan which reduces doses by no more than one-half mg./mo. which gives your adrenals a chance to wake up and start functioning again, but it takes a lot of time. You can find out more about it at Health Unlocked, another incredibly helpful forum for PMR sufferers. I, too, want to be off Pred. asap because I am pre-diabetic and have advanced osteoporosis, so it is a real balancing act. Right now I could not live without Pred because the pain is unbearable. Fortunately, I was able to start with just 5mg. and that has remained constant and I'm currently slowly tapering to 4 1/2. It's great that you found that article about the correlation between covid boosters and PMR because I have not been able to find anything about it, but from what I've read from other sufferers it seems to be very common. What you are experiencing all seems to be very common with PMR, but you are younger than most who contract it. Best wishes.

Hello, I too think the covid booster gave me PMR which morphed into GCA. I want to also add that I started out with the Moderna (april of 2020) vaccine and the 1 st shot, approx 2 weeks later I got a yeast infection. I have never had a yeast infection in my life!! A month later i got the second Moderna shot and again approx 2 weeks later I got a yeast infection. I called My gynocologist office and told them this and they said they had never heard of this kind of reaction.
then In january of 2021 it was time for my booster and I decided to get the Pfizer thinking maybe I wouldn't have such a reaction. I got my booster mid January and approx 2 weeks later I got a yeast infction. This is not a coincendence, this is a fact that the covid shots are responsible for this. then about a week later my shoulders and legs started to get stiff. My husand I were vacationing in florida so I thought it was from carrying all the beach stuff and all the walking/swimming we were doing that might be the cause. Also, different furniture so I didn't think that much of it. I just took aleve to help with the symptoms. As the month went on i was getting more stiff but we were only there for the month of FEbruary so I thought I would just wait until we got home. Maybe getting back to my own bed, furniture things would get better. It didn't, by the 3rd week in March 2021 I finally went to the doctor and had blood tests and inflamation markers were off the charts. FInally got in to see a Rheumatologist in May 2021 I was diagnosed with PMR and in September it had morphed into GCA as well. I know that the covid shots have created all these problems. I was totally healthy (above average) very active individuals as many of you are and now this. THere should be something we can do about this. This is a life changing event with serious health ramifications including the mental aspects of it as well. i've been wanting to join this for a while but I'm not one to talk alot about private things but 14 months of this I'm really getting depressed and needed to vent. it's helpful to hear other peoples stories and learn from your experiences so thank you all!!!!!

I was like you. Very active. Hated to even sit and drink coffee. Go go go… and then After being in excruciating pain and begging for answers for 6+ weeks, I was diagnosed with GCA. Mine even affected my tongue which is very rare. I’m thinking the Covid vac had something to do with it, too. My next physical after getting vaccinated, my pcp found my red blood cells were enlarged. It wasn’t due to drinking alcohol or from being anemic. They are still enlarged. Did this happen to anyone else after the CVacs?

I’m sure the Phizer vaccine caused my PMR. But before being diagnosed with PMR I was diagnosed with DVT’s!!! Which am positive was caused from the Phizer vaccine! A week after I was diagnosed with DVT’s my husband was also was diagnosed with DVT’s in his leg that have calcified. He was having terrible trouble with his right foot swelling and pain and numbness and his dr or his foot dr did not think of blood clots until a few months after doctoring I got diagnosed with DVT. (We had been having many many leg cramps through that time). He got checked at Urgent care (where I was diagnosed and sent to ER put in xarelto and sent home.) He was sent to ER had surgery by a vascular surgeon but the surgeon said he couldn’t even penetrate the long clots in his right leg. He had a scan of legs a few months earlier before the vaccine and had no clots. After he received the Phizer vaccine he was diagnosed with this and today still has the long clots. He has them in his veins and arteries!!! (Full of them)
We are thanking God that he hasn’t lost his leg!!
Then I was diagnosed with PMR after not being able to cover myself up and use my hands and arms and pain like bursitis throughout!!
I’m on 20 mg prednisone thst took pain away over night but I’m left with numbness, tingling, and electricity feeling throughout my body. Numbness also in my tongue, mouth, face etc.
It’s terrible!! My left hand is always numb and checked with hand Dr because my GP thought it’s carpal tunnel. It’s not!!

Polio, Small Pox, Mumps, and all the rest of the vaccines we received as kids were years in the making. When those vaccines were released we received the initial shot and about six weeks later we got the booster. That was it, the end, no more shots required and the diseases ended. The side effect were ironed out in the years that went into testing them before they were released for public use. The world population in 1950 was 2.5 billion, in 2020 the population was 7.8 billion, so yes, more people were dying of Covid in 2020 than people were dying of our 1950's childhood diseases. It was no excuse to release experimental drug vaccines on the world. They were not proven, except on papers provided by the companies manufacturing the Covid vaccine. They are not safe, they should not have been released when they were, we should not have been used as the test rats. Governments had no choices but to approve the vaccines. They were ill prepared world wide for a pandemic. 70 years the governments had time to prepare for hospital bed increases due to an upcoming pandemic they knew was coming. Since childhood 1950's diseases were conquered and they were not about to accept responsibility for their neglect, nor are they accepting responsibility for releasing these mRNA test drugs on their citizens today. I totally blame government and their leader for being trough feeders rather than leaders. As for those photo shoots showing our leaders getting their shots as examples then I ask, Our leaders are not allowed to go to the bathroom alone due to personal safety procedures, would they be allowed to receive an experimental drug as an example? No one, no government, ever said they were not experimental. We received a paper and signed it before our inoculation, acknowledging the fact we knew this drug was experimental. My father told me when I was in school after WWII, "when the government says they are there to help, run and hide". That was 70 years ago. Time to start remembering things our recent ancestors warned us about. Governments have only gotten worse.

Yes after 1st Covid vax March 2021 experienced fatigue,rash,myalgia,mysterious lump above vax site. After 3rd c-vax(booster) December 2021–2 ER visits and full blown PMR.