Red cheeks

[ritter]

Hi girls,have got red cheeks most nights does any one know why please,I did get them when i was on preds but have been off them since 23/2/2015 not just red but hot as well,many thanks in anticipation.Anne

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Hmmm - no, no idea. Unless you have developed rosacea proper or a reaction to wine/gin/coffee/tea?

[ritter in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks PMRpro,Mmmm only drink T,Tell you why i asked as i get palpitations and i am going to hospital for tests as to why i get them most times i get them i am hot and cheeks get hot too and i look like i,v done 10 rounds with casious clay but i suppose that is because my heart is working overtime is that right do you think? they can not see anything wrong with heart but they say its my electrical system,by the way had this about 5 years before GCA .

Thanks for taking the time PMRpro as usual very much appreciated.regards Anne in the sunny north east of England

PS hope you are feeling OK.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to ritter]

The atrial fibrillation I have is also due to rogue electrical activity and I often felt very hot and flushed which it turns out was almost certainly the a/f since I don't have them any more now it is controlled with medication! My a/f was probably due to the autoimmune cause of the PMR damaging the electrical cells that govern heart rate.

Yes - a period of high heart rate which you would experience as palpitations has the same result on the rest of the body as running up a load of stairs! You'd expect to be a bit red and flushed!

Once they found my a/f they literally grabbed me as I was about to go home from hospital after an orthopaedic problem which was what had uncovered the problem - can't go home they said, far too risky! My husband also developed a/f during a cycle ergometer test and he only got to come home (on his birthday) because he was already on warfarin so they decided that was OK, they'd work out the rest later. I was allowed out once the anticoagulant was sorted out.

I'm fine - we've been away with our campervan - Lake Garda, glorious and warm, and then a short trip to Germany for a service on it, also lovely weather. We have glorious sun today and the wind has finally dropped but its perishing - -5C before breakfast this morning! Brrr!

[ritter in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you,what kind of medication do you take for palps,they give me bisopralol 1.25mg but it does not stop them they are very frightening to me I get really scared and that makes it a lot worse,my heart rate goes from normal to 142 and it takes it out of me i feel really drained it last any were from 40mins to 4or5hours,once had it for 27hours did not know then what it was.

Pleased you had a lovely time it sounds very nice,many moons ago when young i lived and worked in Germany lovely country, Thank you again Anne

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to ritter]

I'm on an anti-arrythmic substance called propafenone, 300mg morning and night and as that was still allowing the odd few minutes in the evening I take 150mg in the late afternoon. I'm also on bisoprolol and Losartan but that is to manage blood pressure and reduce heart rate rather than stopping the arrythmia. And of course on an anticoagulant - in the UK it would probably be warfarin - and that is really the most important of them all in a lot of ways.

I do get the impression that they don't take arrythmias particularly seriously in the UK - one of my friends was taken in by ambo late one night with a heart rate of 230+ and was sent home a few hours later with aspirin! I sent her straight to her GP who sorted it out properly!

[leonardswife]

I also stopped Preds in late Jan 2015 after a very slow withdrawal regimel and thought that I would be back to how I felt before the PMR but unfortunately I do not. I went to the docs with quite severe aches and pains (not PMR as I recognise those symptoms) and he said do not expect to be back to normal until you have been off Preds for 6 months to 1 year and always tell Dentist /Hospital etc that you have been on Preds during that period. He also said that there could be all sorts of symptoms so perhaps the red cheeks will eventually go as the body adjusts to being without Preds.

[ritter in reply to leonardswife]

Hello, thank you ever so much for your reply,I thought as much as i do tend to overlook most of the nasty,s I was diagnosed with GCA back in 2012 and the pain i am experiencing must be PMR,but have never been confirmed as having it yet,

many thanks for reply, what would we all do without this forum god only knows,kind regards Anne