I had my flu jab in late September. Since then I have had really sore neck, shoulders, right arm (below the shoulder), tops of feet feeling super stiff & sore. I am on 1 mg pred. So could this have nudged my sleeping PMR or is it me getting older, stiffer and arthritic (NO)? Or could it be all of the above.
I have seen my GP live but it was for an aching side pain and you know what it's like you cannot tell them about your other concerns in one ten minute appointment.
Thanks in advance.
I'd say you have to consider the PMR having being nudged. Although I have to say I noticed my flu jab even less than normal this year - but no idea if it was the same as the UK one.
Have you experimented with a bit more pred?
Some days I take 1.5 or if I feel really ancient I take 2 mg. Thanks for your reply! How do you fit it all in - this and your work and not always feeling 100%?
I'm retired now - Covid put paid to our international conference work anyway this year but him indoors decided he's had enough in relation to a rather political decision that ignored the advice of the people who actually did the work! It is quite relaxing alternating the forums with TV and life ...
I noticed same about flu jab - nothing to report. Just hope it works!
So is it going to bring on a flare of PMR? I have to get a flu jab tomorrow, i have never had one, i dont want to make myself feel even worse than i already feel.
Most of us have had absolutely no adverse effects from the flu jab.
Never had a flu jab till this year- work didn’t give me too much time to think about it- was v nervous but it went fine- had mild headache for a day after that’s all
Have you tried paracetamol? Pharmacist may give advice.
As for 10 minute GP appointments, there should be some flexibility. Personally I would continue to ask questions regarding concerns until the GP calls time. A little analogy...a tutor once told us students to keep writing until the pen was taken out of our hands!
I hope you feel better soon.
I was amazed I even got a face to face apt. When I mentioned feeling achy and did it relate to the flu jab the GP just looked at me. When I win the lottery I am going to take a trip to the Mayo Clinic and have a full checkup. HA.
What an unkind and unprofessional response to your concerns.
Is there another GP in the practice who may be more sympathetic and who you would consult if your symptoms don't ease soon? I do understand the difficulty in getting appointments.
Good luck with your lottery tickets!
First of all, they only want to speak to you on the phone...there are six GPs in the practice and they all have their quirks...so it is a crapshoot. They don't even really look at your notes beforehand. Thankfully I have not had some major issues. I wait until something goes on for a while and then I try to get an apt. The dream would be a holistic approach. One can dream. Thanks for your message.
The official line is that the FIRST contact will be by phone but that f2f would be arranged if appropriate.
Not at my surgery. Their very long phone preamble states that the doors are locked and only telephone triage is being offered. I had a phone call after collapsing last week and was told to go to A&E for tests as present circumstances didn't allow them to bde done at the surgery. They were very thorough at A&E, despite being very busy, though I would have preferred not to go to hospital.
Ridiculous when opticians are open.
My GP is still doing f2f and the phlebotomy clinic is open though you do have to get an appointment. Dentists here worked all the way through, first month emergencies only and then back to normal.
Our appalling figures currently are because people decided to have large weddings in August and SEptember and for the rest of Italy because they bowed to pressure from the tourism industry ...
I bet things are better in the Dolomites (until the ski season).
Bit rough at the moment - but mainly in the valleys and larger villages and the towns. Bozen is appalling!
Ugh. Stay in.
Many people in Facebook group claim flu or shingles jabs brought on their PMR so there may be something in your theory. Another thng people mention is statins causing similar pain to PMR especially in the legs
Luckily my GP did not put me on statins YET.
The Zostavax vaccine actually lists PMR as an adverse effect!
I've quoted that on FB groups as it crops up often and that the manufacturers admitted it, but can't find the info
It's in the posts I did about Zostavax
healthunlocked.com/pmrgcauk...
look at the first link, the second is further details about the shingles vaccine causing - shingles ...
I’ve still given Statins the serve even though they are on my Repeat, my Cholesterol is 5 so not desperate but l simply could not take any more PMR Like Pain until they’ve proved my arteries are furred up.....
I will NEVER take them, I'm no anti-vaxxer or anything but am very cynical about both PPIs and statins and the dodgy research reports of Big Pharma. There is NO established link between high cholesterol and heart problems nor that statins help cholesterol. Sugar damages to your body and is the enemy, not proper fats.
Life and science are jam packed with very real linked problems and issues that are completely true and accepted yet can not be scientifically proven. The reality is that people, problems, vaccines and links between them, pretty much ALL need to be checked and decided individually, which is an unbearably challenging and unpopular reality. Blanket statements rule and everyone that falls between the cracks is considered collateral damage. or condemned to the looney section for conspiracy freaks.
The proof I personally have is that statins are amazingly effective in reducing LDL very fast, and the moment (my) LDL drops to a certain point, I stop having a stroke every 3 weeks.
I can also provide lots of other party's proof that the opposite is true. Lovely, this reality, ain't it?
Also, there is no such thing as "vaccines are", except maybe the statement "all different"
But, very unpopular, this line of debate or thought. Blanket statements are so much easier.
"vaccines are good", or "vaccines are bad" soothes the mind so much more. No hard work required. Reality is that every batch of vaccines is different, and every brand making the same vaccine is also different. Worst of all, every vaccine type is different, and has variable effects on a person-to-person bases. The vaccine industry is aware, and that is why they had their publicly elected corrupt buddies provide exemption from getting sued in a way you can sue VW for forgetting a few bolts in your cars.
That doesn't mean my kids aren't getting their -now safe- polio vaccine, as well as the -possibly safe- Jap Encephalitis shot, because that disease is a real and present danger, and worth the statistical chance of vaccine-related damage.
But, I will never give them MMR cocktail shots.
I WOULD, however give them 3 "M", "M" and an "R" shot, if only that were possible. It isn't.
One SHOULD be cynical when it comes to pharma, both eastern and western. Corporate sociopaths have left a 100 year trail of pharmaceutical lies and death, planetwide. Eastern, holistic, organic, herbal, needle-sticking, foot nerve pinching, hot-cupping new-age quacks, liars and scammers clog up your mailboxes the moment they smell one might be a candidate.
At the same time, those sociopathic capitalists have saved my life, and the lives of loved ones, more than once.
Therefore, we are left to our own devices, and we really need to get very lucky finding true -and personally fitting- advice. because in the light of incomplete, dodgy and contrasting "official" data we find ourselves incapable, confused and insecure, having to choose our path ourselves. Choose wrong, and your ass may be grass.
That is the truth as I see it. Yours will probably vary. Welcome to our 3rd world planet. For best results, make sure to check in, once every 100 years.
Great post/rant! Many interesting points made
Really. OMG. Of course most people know nothing about PMR and the fun you have when are suffering from it.
Well, it was the 2018 flu jab that started me on this adventure... those aches and pains exactly 24 hours later, eventually turned into pneumonia and I found myself in ICU within a month... all very Covid-like, but way before Covid. My pulmonologist begrudgingly admitted to me that the flu jab could have sent my immune system into overdrive.
And I have one every year. Gulp.
If it isn't the flu jab it is even more likely to be the flu you got because you didn't have the jab
2 weeks after my flu jab I begun to get a very painful neck and sore face.I had changed pillows.My jaw was tender and I had a headache for 10 days.I increased pred by 1mg and it all started to improve.I was about to contact gp and it got better.
Am I heading for a flare? 
Am I having a relapse?
Am I on the right track! 
Advice Please, I am in a terrible state.
Tapering..What am I battling?
