Oh boy! So I cannot take any NSAIDS, anti-inflammatories or any type of steroid for any of these. I also have arthritis and degenerative arthritis in my neck and spine. I’m all of 54.
The polymyalgia diagnosis was just made three weeks ago and noe I’m concerned about GC. I have chronic headaches and my vision has decreased rapidly since my nephrectomy in March 2016.
HELP?!?
Indie
What I was told is GC..blindness comes on very quick. If you are concerned I would have your surgeon do a biopsy. I had a biopsy but it came out normal. Easy, easy surgery, not even a pain pill.
Thank you, Sadiebelle. Called my neurologist tonight and calling both my nephrologist and rheumatologist tomorrow.
Hello IndieArtist
You are dealing with a lot of 'stuff' that's for sure !! The last thing you want to do is let your eyesight be at risk But remember even if you have a temporal artery biopsy it can still come out negative although you have GCA. If you DO have GCA then as far as I am aware corticosteroids are the only effective treatment so I am not sure at all how that would be managed if you can't take these. There are several very expert people on this forum who may be able to make some helpful suggestions regarding the complexity of problems you are dealing with - i hope so !! In the meantime I wish you all the very best at resolving at least some of these !
Kind regards
I have stage 4 renal failure and I can take corticosteroids. Ran this past my urologist and she was fine with it. I can not take NSAIDs tho eg ipubrufen. What is your blood pressure like? High BP can cause headaches. Are you on BP medications? I also have PMR and TA. I had biopsy which showed nothing. Eye test was fine too but my symptoms were very much in keeping with TA so was commenced on 50mg prednisone at the beginning. Weaned to 5mg almost 2 yrs later. Have had to increase to 10mg the last few days as slight increase in meds didn’t help this flare up.
If you are concerned about GCA then you need to see a rheumatologist immediately - particularly if steroids are a problem. Though I'm not quite clear why you can't take steroids? They don't work for fibromyalgia, are the only option for PMR and are also often used in renal disease - so why can't you take them?
Also tocilizumab is now also approved for use in GCA and I understand from the medical literature "TCZ is considered one of the promising options for treatment of patients with RA and renal insufficiency in a real-life medical practice."