@hunib33 and sudden onset , you are > 50 yrs old, pain stiffness worse in the morning ?? Are you keeping a pain journal ? Did the internist also suspect PMR? Did you come across the sites pmrandyou.com ? And pmrandIL6 dot com -- the slide show is super informative . I like this figure the best to think about what is happening in PMR.

Do you have a funny story yet ; )

Hi @hunib33,
You were smart.
I suffered in silence for a year thinking I had fibromyalgia. Then I was so fatigued, lost a lot of weight, and got shingles on my face (despite having the Shingrex vaccine a year prior).
I thought I had Lupus. I confided in an infectious disease doctor friend who went over my bloodwork, found I was anemic, and told me what other tests to request my doctor to take. He was resentful and told me if I had GCA, I'd be blind. Long story short, my inflammation markers were off the charts and biopsy of the temporal artery was positive.
Are you the only person in your family that you know of who's been stricken? My maternal aunt had it, and my mother-in-law as well.
I was taking prednisone about a year and a half and have been off it about nine months, no flareups.
How are you doing now?
Did you have an illness or injury before the onset of symptoms that you think caused your immune system to go into overdrive?
Wishing you the best,
Teri

My rheumatologist actually made my diagnosis but I honestly didn’t believe him despite my symptoms of sudden onset hip & shoulder pain with low grade temperatures and extreme fatigue. I was also anemic and my inflammatory markers were crazy high. I don’t have a positive family history for PMR but my 90+ year old Mom & Sister both have symptoms and are working with rheumatologist now so I will not be surprised with their diagnosis. My rheumatologist told me that he had never treated another African American patient that he had diagnosed with PMR. I wondered at the time how many diagnoses are missed because of race/ethnicity.