i have had PMR for nearly a year and am down to 6mg plus weekly Metholtrxate and feeling great. About a month ago I fell off a chair and cracked my pelvis. I am slowly getting over that. Last week I started feeling terrible with headache, nausea, overall fatigue. Went to the doctor and he did labs that were all fine. Over the weekend I felt much worse with headache, foggy feeling, nausea. I went back to the doctor today and he is concerned it may be GCA. He ran more blood work, called my rheumologist and is in discussions with him. He also scheduled an MRI. I would love to hear some thoughts from you wonderful experienced people. I am so scared to be treated for GCA. Thank you for your help. It's been a tough summer so far.
Don't be scared! I've had GCA for about 18 months, following 4 years of PMR.
If you are diagnosed with GCA, you will be treated with utmost care by your doctor and rheumatologist. You may be asked to have a temporal artery biopsy, a small incision in your temple, to see if giant cells are present. It's not always conclusive, as the sample is sometimes taken from a piece of the artery where no giant cells are present. I've had it done and it was not painful at all.
You will also be put on a much higher dose of prednisolone , probably a minimum of 40mg, to start with.
But wait and see what the outcome is before I go into more details. You've had a really bad time, so hopefully they will get to the bottom of this quickly, although it's not always possible to get a definitive diagnosis.
Let us know how you get on. We will be here to help and answer your questions.
rrobinson, ouch! What a painful experience cracking your pelvis, and now having symptoms of what does sound very reminiscent of those I experienced leading up to my GCA diagnosis, including the head pain and nausea - in fact, I was actually vomiting. I had also had PMR for a year beforehand, although undiagnosed.
Susanne has already given you great advice and I echo her words not to be scared. It might also help for you to know that I am now in remission form both PMR and GCA. So chin up, if it is GCA and you have to increase your steroids to 40mg, that should sort your symptoms out so that you feel so much better - I had an almost immediate response to the 40mg starting dose - within hours. Lots of good luck wishes and do come back and let us know how you get on - there will always be someone around to help from their experience.
Thank you for your encouragement. It really helps! I will let you know what happens.
thank you for your kind words, it is so helpful to hear from fellow sufferers. I will post when I know what happens.
I do hope you feel better soon. I don't suppose a biopsy would be useful as you'll have been on pred for PMR so long. The MRI will be more definitive in any case. Just read on another thread about someone who had an MRI and said it was fine, not at all a difficult procedure to endure! All the best.
Hi dear
Did you do your MRI? What was
Could you do the MRI? What was your result?
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I had the MRI on Friday and still waiting for results. My headache is better so I am thankful for that.
Hi dear
Good thst
Hi dear
Good to hear that you did your MRI. Hopefully there will be nothing to concern about.
The reason I've asked you was that I've recently have done an MRI and it showed flare hyperintecities in both of my frontal lobs. Since I am 37 years old and my other blood tests came normal doctors don't take me siriously.
All of the blood works for the GCA came back normal only my MRI was little abnormal. The radiologist wanted the doctors to do neck MRI and spinal MRI but my doctors both the primary and neurologist are dismissing it. They say i am to young to have either PMR or GCA. I've explained my pain and sings in other pages. To see if there are others that are in my age and suffering. But haven't received anything. I don't know how to push my doctors to investigate more about this.
Beacuse MRI is expensive they keep denying my concerns.
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I am so sorry you are having so many problems. Hopefully they will resolve. If you are not satisfied with your doctor, I would get a second opinion. Hang in there!
I wish I could but it's not possible. They all are booked for six or eight months.