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Any difficulty in diagnosis of PMR?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jul 1, 2023 | Replies (51)Comment receiving replies
I had symptoms for almost a year in the form of shoulder and upper back pain, muscle spasms and fatigue. My MD ran some blood work and started me on thyroid replacement and suggested physical therapy. Used ibuprofen for pain to the point I damaged my kidneys, but I was a nurse in a busy trauma ICU and had to work. I was wearing back and knee braces and TENS devices to try to cope. Then the sternal end of my clavicle swelled and game over, couldn't move my arm. More blood work revealed CRP of 22 with elevated Sed rate. Started me on 10mg prednisone and suggested a rheumatology consult, which took about 10 months to get. She thought it could be pmr, based more on the fact that my sister and brother had been diagnosed with it. Been a crazy trip. Was told it would last about a year. That was 2016.
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I was a surgical ICU nurse until autoimmune problems forced me to work in a neurosurgery step-down unit. I managed my problems on my own since I was a nurse. It was no secret that I was taking prednisone. My nursing coworkers would often ask me how much prednisone I was taking. It was my hint that I needed to "chill out." If a nurse can't get a diagnosis ... who else can?
My problem was more about thinking I knew more than I did . I thought I could handle all of the prednisone I was taking. My first wake-up call was being in an ICU bed with a massive, extensive, multiple and bilateral PE. The ICU doctors were kind enough to say the PE was "unprovoked." However, I could hear the whispering about prednisone. That wasn't my first complication from long term prednisone use.
For me it wasn't the inability to be diagnosed. It was more about what to do about my problems and how to get me off prednisone.