HI everybody. Quick question. Has anyone with GCA had problems with
shortness of breath. I have not has this problem before relapse in March. Am currently on 13mg of pred.
My Mother had shortness of breath when she had GCA and not long after that she got AF, they put in a pacemaker and slowed her heart down then she had a heart attack not long after and had to have a stent put in on of her arteries her Dr said it was all related and it took a while to sort out her medication to keep her stable. Get your Dr to check your arteries and make sure they are not clogging or damaged!! She is fine at the moment although gets tired very easily (aged 89) so I guess that is to be expected.
Yes! I have GCA/PMR and find as soon as I reduce pred I get pain and stiffness in ribs which makes deep breaths difficult. Usually worse in the morning and gets better later in the day.
Thanks . That's a bit scary. See my GP today. Am also going to ask for referral to rheumatologist . Have seen consultant at eye clinic but that was unhelpful. Steroids being put up and down too often for my liking.
Thanks its all very strange ! Am on 13mg at moment which is being reduced by 1 mg weekly till I get to 10 and want to stay there fir a while to avoid another relapse. Got down to 9 three weeks ago and got headaches back. This is awful. My right eye has been affected too.Have a good day.
Shortness of breath can be due to pred. It can also be due to the chest arteries being affected by the GCA - this can happen without the head arteries being affected by the way.
Do you mean all the time or is in episodes? I had brief episodes due to atrial fibrillation but they were very occasional until I had a drug reaction that made it much worse and they were diagnosed as I happened to be in hospital at the time. A single ECG won't identify anything like that, you need at least a 24hour or better few days continuous ECG and even then it won't find it if it is very intermittent. The cardiologist was sure the a/f was a result of the underlying autoimmune disorder damaging the cells that govern heart rate.
Hi, Got no advice for you but thought I would respond as shortness of breath is something I have been noticing recently - gets better as day goes on. I am now on 5/6 mg preds after being diagnosed with pmr in January 2011. Think I will visit my doctor and report it.
Thanks Eileen. Just come back from doc. Had ecg and ok . Also had result from halter and thats normal for my age (64). He will check bloods again when I get to 10mg. Says I'm ok to fly to Australia in october for family holiday. He's not referring me yet !!
This is scary. I have been having shortness of breath for the last 2 weeks. I hike at least once a week and last night on my walk became quite out of breath Thought it was anxiety. Could be but am going to doctor this Friday and will ask about other possibilities. Thank you all for this posting.
Hi my GP asked if I was anxious as I have an anxiety disorder, but I know the difference as when you have a panic attack you generally sweat and feel sick. Let us know how you go. Take care
Mum was having many halter tests over 24 hours ecg's and all the Dr's seemed to do was fiddle with medication as it was very intermittent - she complained of shortness of breath and extreme tiredness persistently and AF reared its head intermittently. The Dr's ignored her complaint of tiredness completely putting it down to the AF and her age actually I think they were at a loss ( i see you are younger my age actually), it wasn't until the artery clogged completely and she had a heart attack that they found she needed a stent put in. This was only about 2 months after they had her under a heart specialist who put in the pacemaker. Why he didn't pick up the artery problem is beyond me unless it came on extremely suddenly. I don't want to scare you, just giving details of Mum's experience so you can listen to your own body.
If they didn't do an angiogram they wouldn't have seen it but you'd have thought they'd have done that pre-pacemaker. At least nowadays they take you straight to the cath lab if you have a heart attack and call an ambulance straight away - but it does depend on where you live and surviving it in the first place. My daughter lives in a flat in Whitby which we bought for her when she was first posted there (she's a paramedic) but has forbidden us to live there if we move back to the UK! Too far to a decent hospital she say!:Criterion no 1 when looking for a house at over 60: where's the nearest hospital big enough for good cardiovascular cover ;-)