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Can PMR (Polymyalgia Rheumatica) be induced by vaccine?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Oct 19, 2023 | Replies (401)Comment receiving replies
Tested positive for Covid-19 in Feburary, 2020, and was sick for two months (refused to go to the hospital because people were going in and not coming out). Never felt a hundred percent again. In June, 2020, started with a lot of PMR symptoms, which I did not know I may have had at the time. Had the two doses of the Maderna Vaccine in August, 2020 and according to schedule, both which made me extremely ill. Fast forward to June, 2022, PMR symptoms start to become unbearable; the pain in my neck, lower back, shoulders, arms, etc. incapacitated me; was bed ridden on and off, always worse in the mornings. The next 15 months were horrific. 15 Specialists, 3 hospital visits, and finally just received my diagnosis within the past few weeks.....PMR. The good news.....I do not have GCA even though I had double vision for a few weeks on and off. As of tomorrow, I will be weaning from 60 mg Prednisone to 40 mg for a week, then 30 mg for the next week, etc.
If you have been through the weaning process lately, please let me know how you made out. My doctor said she will wean me down to 2.5 mg, however, I may need to have something else added in. Also, please let me know if you had gotten to this point and what they had added in for your treatment.
Replies to "Tested positive for Covid-19 in Feburary, 2020, and was sick for two months (refused to go..."
Well, midway through the weaning process (I was at 30 mg and was suppose to wean down to 20 mg on September 29th and 10 mg yesterday), and on September 28th, I tested positive for COVID-19. Still pretty sick but able to function now. My son unfortunately tested positive on the 25th, and one of the kitchen workers was send home on the 24th because he tested positive for COVID.
What is really strange, I started have a very strong taste of salt in my mouth again as one of the symptoms. The congestion that I'm expelling has an extremely strong taste of salt (same thing I went through back in June, 2020 after being very sick with COVID the last time for 2 months and never was a 100% after that). But the question is "why is this happening each time I get COVID and how is related?" Any answers or possible theories will be welcome!
What I found to be very scary about this bout is that I was driving my daughter to work (only 5 minutes from our house), and out of no where I couldn't keep my eyes open. Twice on the way to her work place, so my daughter told me, my eyes closed while I was driving (I was not aware of this). A few times on the way back home I think I also kept dozing off because my body would jerk and then I was there just driving which was scary. The only reason I knew the last time that I definitely dozed off was because I drove off the road, apparently hit the curb, and that's when I woke up to my car coming down off the grass/curb. God was watching over me and everyone else that day. I was not completely aware of what was going on at the time, and did not know until I went to Urgent Care that I had a fever over 102, which must of spiked really quick.
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@joan7 Your disease progression is remarkably similar to mine. I'm 64 years old, male, northern European descent.
I had what I think was Covid-19 in January 2020 (not tested), was also sick for about 2 months, and also never felt 100% again. It left me in a permanently reduced energy state. I could exercise and be active, but I has to much more carefully manage my energy.
I had Moderna vaccines as well, multiple doses starting in March 2021.
PMR started on January 14, 2023, and it was very severe, with excruciating pain 24/7 that felt like multiple bones were broken in my body, extraordinarily high levels of inflammation (10x higher than most with PMR), severe night sweats, fever, nausea, weight loss, headache, episodes of double vision,... The initial treatment, started 3 weeks later, of 20 mg/day of Prednisone was inadequate. After an emergency room visit on March 2, 2023, due to double vision, the ER doctors upped the dosage to 60 mg/mg. This was continued for about 5 weeks, after which weekly injections of Actemra (tocilizumab) were introduced and tapering of the Prednisone started.
The Actemra shots have been very effective with no relapses and my inflammation scores too low to measure.
I am now (10/7/23) down to 1 mg/day of Prednisone, and will discontinue in it another 2 week. The weekly shots of Actemra will probably continue for another year...