Weird!

[samitzi]

Was diagnosed with PMR seven years ago and it's never gone away. I'm convinced it was triggered by a 'flu jab few weeks before and have been on varying doses of Prednisolone since, currently 3 ml per day. But, and here's the weird bit, since I had my pfizer jab 4 weeks ago, I've had no PMR symtoms. Could there be a connection?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Who knows? Could just be coincidental that your PMR has run it’s course around same time as Covid vaccine.....only time will tell.

[SheffieldJane]

Interesting though. Flu cases have been down by 95% if I heard the radio correctly. That would truly be a miracle. Go carefully, fingers crossed.

[samitzi in reply to SheffieldJane]

It would be a miracle for me Jane, and truly change my life!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to SheffieldJane]

Flu cases are down because of isolation, masks and hand washing - could do the same every year ...

[SheffieldJane in reply to PMRpro]

....and the common cold. I wonder if masks and the hand washing will be with us in some form for a very long time?I was trying to make a tenuous link between the flu virus as the final trigger for samitzi’s PMR and its current absence. In any case, I sincerely hope it lasts.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to SheffieldJane]

I hope so - that is what Chris Whitty has been trying to convey I think! But I don't hold out much hope for the great unwashed in general People are so disgusting - I mean, why would you NOT wash you hands after going to the toilet? Or sneezing into your hand? Yuk ...

[SheffieldJane in reply to PMRpro]

I can’t be the only one who has become mildly obsessive. Our Chinese Students no longer look eccentric in their masks, just wise.

[Constance13 in reply to PMRpro]

" sneezing into hand" It was what we were told to do years ago! It's relatively new sneezing into elbow.

I imagine winters in future will see many of us using masks when we go out (virus or not).

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Constance13]

Possibly but for goodness sake wash the hand afterwards!!!

[Constance13 in reply to PMRpro]

Did you always wash your hands when you were a child? After going to the toilet - yes.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Constance13]

Probably not - but I am talking about more recent years - when we know about bugs and how they spread.

[Constance13 in reply to PMRpro]

Don't you think we are beginning to know too much? Ignorance is bliss!

Different for you I suppose with your medical background.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Constance13]

I think there is a happy medium - knowing how to stay healthy is a good idea and that includes asking about anything different like pain and lumps and things.

[samitzi in reply to Constance13]

Ignorance is not bliss. We only need to look at high levels of early death in third world countries, where many do not have the luxury of clean water or an understanding of the importance of hygiene, to know that.

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

I saw a scruffy guy sneezing over unwrapped broccoli in Tesco before the first lockdown. There are some revolting people about.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Maybe the immune system has found another toy and is leaving your bod alone? Others have said in the past that during various types of other illness the PMR went quiet.

[samitzi in reply to PMRpro]

After 7 years of PMR I will be very happy if it stays quiet, whatever the reason!

[suzy1959]

I'm crossing my fingers that that is the case for me too! I have just had my first Pfizer Vaccination today

[Hidden]

That's interesting, because 3 weeks after the Pfizer jab I had a major flare. Started with waking in the early hours with my whole body feeling that it was stinging all over. Got up and walked about for a short while and realised I was having PMR pains. I was on 3mg pred/day and feeling fine, looking forward to reducing again when weather warms up. Now in my 7 year with PMR and back on 8mg.

[jackswife in reply to Hidden]

I have had PMR since 2017 and had gotten down to 3,5 mg prednisone. Got my first shot of the vaccine (Moderna) on 2/22. My arm was very sore for about 4 days when the pain left my arm and moved up into my shoulder where it still is. I was already dealing with a painful knee (getting physical therapy for it, which is helping), The morning is particularly bad with shoulder pain and knee pain. This morning I felt pain in both shoulders and both knees, which made me think that the vaccine may have kicked off a flare. Who knows? My second shot is at the end of this month and I'm beginning to dread it. Still....better than Covid.

[Hidden in reply to jackswife]

I can sympathize, I am dreading the second shot, I am convinced that it caused my flare, not only that I woke in the night with my whole body feeling that I was having an electric shock the weirdest feeling I have ever experienced. I really don't want that again. But if I catch Covid that could well be the end. Not a difficult choice is it. But then it's not guaranteed that I would catch Covid. What a dilemma!

[jackswife in reply to Hidden]

Indeed a dilemma. Electric shock sounds dreadful. I hope it didn't last too long. Thanks for sharing your story. It makes me feel less crazy knowing others are having unusual reactions, too. So sorry you had this one and hope it doesn't reoccur.

[Hidden in reply to jackswife]

Thanks jackswife, fortunately it did not last long, but after I got up it felt more like tingling for a while and then I realised I was having a flare. this was certainly not a normal flare.

[samitzi]

Sorry to hear that, Pastit. It is so disappointing when things seem to be improving you get a flare up. Happened to me so many times.

[Hidden in reply to samitzi]

Just as an addition to your comment, I too believe that my PMR developed after my first flue vaccine. I didn't have the flue vaccine after that for 5 years until a Doctor said it was just coincidence. So I took the vaccine and again shortly after had a flair and had to start again on 15mg as the Doctor said "the PMR has come back again, it does in some people" Too many coincidences' and I believe one size doesn't fit all.

[samitzi in reply to Hidden]

That is so interesting; elsewhere, I've read about other folk who have said the same. My Mum had PMR too, starting shortly after a flu vaccine and I truly believe that, given I must have a propensity for the condition, the flu jab triggered my PMR. I refuse to have the flu vaccine now.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to samitzi]

As I keep saying - it might have been the flu jab that was the final straw that tipped the immune system over the edge - but without the vaccine you might have caught flu and it would have done it. There is no single cause of a/i disease - it is an accumlation of a lot of factors.

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

As the say "between the devil and the deep blue sea"

[Hidden in reply to samitzi]

Yes, just to confirm, when I developed PMR I decided not to have the flue jab for 4 years after, foolishly some will say, but a doctor persuaded me to have it saying it must have been a coincidence, I was on 3mg pred then and after the jab, not directly after, but within a number of weeks I was back on 15mg because my symptoms caused my Doctor to say my PMR had come back. Covid is a different mater, that is more of a killer, so the dilemma begins again for the second shot.

[AussieKid]

I too was diagnosed with PMR 2014/15. I believed it started following 2009 flu injection (3 really bad colds one after the other and injection side shoulder wasting followed by gradual onset of generalise body stiffness to the point of needing wheelchair for mobility in 2014). Have been following long-haul COVID s/s and relate to them. Finding it really difficult to taper below Pred 9mgs daily and so hoping Vaccine helps rather than hinders.

[carolBF]

Hi samitzi

I had covid in the middle of November and had felt very lethargic since.

I was wondering if I had long covid.

I had my covid vaccine 8 days ago and have felt much better, so was my body slow in building up an immunity to covid and the vaccine helped with this, plus my PMR slight symptoms Are stable/slightly better.

Interesting

[samitzi in reply to carolBF]

Goodness, we could be on to something here. Apparently there is a yellow card system where you can report side effects of the vaccine. When I get my second jab, going to see if I can get hold of one and report a positive side-effect - if this lasts, that is!