Recently Diagnosed PMR Disease Progression

Teri or anyone else what doc does this fall under should I see my neurologist, rheumatologist, cardiologist, PCP

Teri or anyone else what doc does this fall under should I see my neurologist, rheumatologist, cardiologist, PCP

Like Teri said, a rheumatologist is the main doctor for GCA and PMR, But I also saw an ophthalmologist every 3 month over the past year to monitor for any problems from the GCA and prednisone. Prednisone can increase pressure in the eyes, and that can cause glaucoma. Prednisone can also cause cataracts to get worse, sometimes fairly rapidly.

Untreated, GCA can have severe complications. One of my symptoms second time around was numbness up the neck into the ear on one side of my face,

This from Perplexity.ai:

Untreated Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) carries severe, potentially life-threatening risks beyond vision loss. Key complications include:
🔴 Systemic Vascular Complications
Aortic aneurysms/dissections: Inflammation weakens arterial walls, raising rupture risk. Aortic involvement increases mortality 2.6-fold compared to age-matched populations.
Stroke: Reduced blood flow to cerebral arteries can cause ischemic stroke.
Coronary artery involvement: May trigger heart attacks or myocardial ischemia.
Mesenteric ischemia: Bowel infarction due to compromised blood supply to intestines.
⚠️ Neurological and Functional Risks
Jaw/tongue claudication: Pain during chewing, indicating impaired cranial blood flow.

Limb claudication: Reduced arm/leg mobility from subclavian or femoral artery inflammation.
Permanent bilateral blindness: Up to 50% develop contralateral vision loss within days/weeks if untreated.
⚠️ Mortality Risks
Cardiovascular events: Leading cause of death, with heightened risk from aortic complications.
Pulmonary complications: Contribute to increased mortality.

You can also Google Giant Cell Arteritis, click on Images and see pictures of swollen veins from GCA.

Whatever you decide, @sbtheplumber1, I wish you the best.

I contacted my eye doctor and was told to contact my PCP first within 2 hours of calling them I was seen by an overflow N.P. who new about GCA and she immediately order everything but the kitchen sink for lab work and urine sample , she ordered an ultrasound of head and neck soft tissue but my local hospital can’t do that ultrasound so they tried the next closest hospital which I guess Stat doesn’t mean emergency when the scheduler goes home before order is finished. Depending on results they might have to do a biopsy. She wanted to put me on steroids but wanted to wait on lab work and ultrasound

Thank you Teri my PCPs office got me in and ordered an Ultrasound but my local hospital can’t do it and the closest hospital the scheduler went home before they got everything scheduled .

I hope you can get it quickly, @sbtheplumber1!

That is similar to what I went through when I went to the local emergency room for temporary vision loss. They were trying to distinguish between GCA and stroke, so over 2 days I had extensive blood tests, EKG, EEG, MRI of my brain, ultrasound of my heart, and a temporal artery biopsy. I saw quite a few doctors, including the emergency room doctor and 2 neurologists. They suspected GCA immediately, so they started me on daily IVs of high dose steroids. I was hospitalized for 3 days so that I could receive the IVs.

The week following my hospitalization, I saw my PCP and a rheumatologist, and the rheumatologist advised me to see an ophthalmologist as soon as possible, since I had had several episodes of temporary vision loss due to the GCA. I think I saw the ophthalmologist the following week. In your case it might be ok to see the eye doctor a little later, since your vision was not affected. But it is still good to follow up with them because of the problems that can be caused by prednisone.

I had a lot of symptoms of GCA. I had pain in my cheekbones that was the worst when I was in bed at night, because of the pressure against the pillow. I had night sweats, low grade fever for several hours each day, weight loss, tenderness around my ears and on my scalp, and a lot of fatigue in my jaw muscles when I was chewing. I eventually went to the emergency room when I lost the vision in one eye for a few seconds. While I was at the hospital I had several more episodes of temporary vision loss in that eye. They started treatment immediately for GCA, and my vision turned out ok.

I never had any headaches, and I didn't pay attention to my temporal arteries. They did do a biopsy, and it was positive for GCA. I just googled headaches and GCA, and it said 10 - 30 percent of patients with GCA don't have headaches. But I had most of the other symptoms.

Are you currently being treated for PMR? I had PMR for maybe 8 months or so before I started having symptoms of GCA. Have you had a rheumatologist check you for GCA? It can be very dangerous.

Jeff I missed this message! yes I have jaw pain , tenderness around my ear, ear pain, I have tinnitus and the ringing has got really loud the last few days. I’ve not contacted my Rheumatologist yet until I get the ultrasound July 1st hard to believe only 1 out of the 4 hospitals near me do this specific ultrasound. I knew nothing about PMR until I started searching temple swelling and found out about GCA I will mention it when I talk to the doctor