Connect
← Return to Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR): Meet others & Share Your Story
Discussion
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR): Meet others & Share Your Story
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jan 27 8:38am | Replies (1879)Comment receiving replies
I’m working with my internal medicine ANP for the most part. She has put in a referral for a rheumatologist, but it can take up to or more than a year in this area to get an appointment. And I have to have a referral. I still haven’t heard anything regarding that. I do plan to ask my ANP if we can try a trial period of prednisone to see if my symptoms improve. I also have bloodwork coming up in August, and that might help if anything has changed. My blood pressure readings have dropped significantly since this started—80s/50s is now my normal range, and sometimes lower. Considering that, I should be able to tolerate the steroids’ hypertensive effects.
Thank you—your message was very helpful.
Replies to "I’m working with my internal medicine ANP for the most part. She has put in a..."
Connect
You’re welcome. I hope you’re able to get some relief and answers soon.
I came across this article as well if it might help: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5911650/
Other than a trial of prednisone, it mentions an ultrasound being a possible diagnostic tool as well. (But in my area it can also take months to get an ultrasound…)
That’s a good idea to discuss a trial of prednisone; I hope the ANP will be receptive to it. Given what you’ve said about it being so difficult to get through the day…and if the pain is severe, it seems worth a try. If it is PMR, the pain and fatigue can become severe. And it occurs so often with GCA, which can cause a serious risk of blindness and a risk of stroke. That’s what we were most afraid of with my dad when we were struggling to get him treatment. He did have a stroke two weeks after receiving the official diagnosis, but we’ll never know if it was related to the PMR/GCA or not because by then he’d already started a lower dose of prednisone from his PCP.
I’m not trying to be so doomsday >_