← Return to Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR): Meet others & Share Your Story

Discussion
Comment receiving replies
@ripley

Does PMR always have severe stiffness in shoulder and hips so that arms can't be raised above head and hip pain makes it hard to get out of bed? Could muscle pain in the neck, shoulders, arms, hips and upper thighs be PMR, along with achy shoulder joints? Do SED rate and C Reactive Protein tests have to be elevated to diagnose PMR? I was told I have Fibromyalgia, but also heard due to my age (72), it could be PMR? Any suggestions are welcome.

Jump to this post


Replies to "Does PMR always have severe stiffness in shoulder and hips so that arms can't be raised..."

Hi, I am newly diagnosed with PMR and these were my symptoms. At first I experienced stiffness in both my hip joints which I attributed to too much exercise (vigorous snowshoeing in VT in early Feb.). Then I continued to walk 3-4 miles a day. Late Feb I was still very stiff in hips but blew it off to age and exercise. Went to Egypt in March and noticed that getting on the bus for tours was very difficult (lifting my leg on that first step was not pretty). By the time we returned from our trip in early April I knew something was not right. Taking NSAIDs gave me some relief but not enough. Two orthopedic surgeons said I had osteoarthritis. By beginning of May pain had settled into both hips, upper thighs, shoulders and neck. My husband had to help me out of bed. After a blood work up I was finally diagnosed by rheumatologist with PMR. The bilateral aspect of the pain seems to be a red flag too. Not sure about the question of your sed rate and CRP being normal but I have heard that it can happen and you can still have PMR. Prednisone has been a game changer for me. At moment I am tapering from a beginning of 30mg to 17.5mg now with the goal of 0 in a few months. No side effects as yet, having blood work done every month, seeing rheumatologist every month. Also taking lots of supplements (Calcium, vit D, vit. K, Pepcid) along with anti inflammatory diet. Have you seen a rheumatologist? Good luck with this journey and have patience.

Those were pretty much my dad’s symptoms, except he had a little more mobility in his shoulders. I have fibromyalgia (and I am 40), and we learned that a few things that distinguish PMR from at least my fibro are: Age (Fibro can happen at any age, but as you know with PMR, it’s usually with people who are older, sudden onset—it is usually sudden and suddenly severe and functionally limiting, i.e. can’t get out of bed all off a sudden, and it gets worse quickly without treatment—and there’s pain in mostly the “large muscles” (shoulders, hips, core). Also usually, but (annoyingly) not always ESR and CRP blood tests are elevated. He also has “early morning stiffness” that lasted until early afternoon. In his presentation, the fatigue was the most debilitating.

It might be worth talking to your rheumatologist again and asking if it might be PMR or something else, especially if you’re in a lot of pain? There are so many different types of inflammatory arthropathies that it seems like it could be easy to accidentally pick one over the other, even for someone who’s aware it may not be top of mind. I have a different inflammatory arthritis, and I was evaluated at Mayo Rochester, and the then-fellow and now rheumatologist whose area of expertise is my condition, missed the diagnosis. So it can happen sometimes.

I hope you feel better soon.