GCA morphing into PMR?

[Snerd]

Hello dear friends: I’ve been on the GCA journey almost 3 years now and I am down to 1 mg prednisone. I’ve been under terrible stress especially the past week but continuing for a couple months. And suddenly now and I am almost off of prednisone for GCA, I have fear that PMR is kicking in. Bad neck pain, some shoulder pain, some hip pain, creaky and stiff. Yesterday on my normal walk I was very fatigued and that fatigue has gotten worse today. I did a Covid test and I am not positive for Covid. Apparently I have no Temperature although I feel kind of warm to me. I have congestion and a little cough. Today I decided to take two extra grams of prednisone. Or is it Milligrams? Ha ha. Anyway, I am so afraid that PMR will get me just when I’m winning this GCA war. I think that my stress has so much to do with it and who knows it could be flu I don’t know. Has anybody else gone from GC A to PMR? What was your experience did it come on suddenly? Thank you so much. By the way, my last blood tests were normal, that was about two weeks ago.

[Grammy80]

I don't know if I've gone from GCA to PMR, or I'm just older and hurt? The journey has been 3.5 years, and I am finally at 3mg plus weekly TCZ. I've never gotten this low before, so even though I had a hospitalization and then pancreatitis, I stubbornly stuck to the plan and it all worked out~~I figured I could always take more if I had an issue.

You may have a bug or cold, so maybe it would be better to take some Tylenol or Paracetamol instead of Pred....? No medical credentials here.💞

[Snerd in reply to Grammy80]

thank You Grammy!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Would go for partly adrenals -on the fatigue side …but as Grammy80 says are you sure it’s not a virus lurking so maybe try painkillers rather than increasing Pred.

But it could be you are just too low for your GCA or of course it could PMR which may well have been there a long time, but controlled on higher doses…..

Sometimes it’s difficult to know at such low doses…

[Snerd in reply to DorsetLady]

thanks so much Lady

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It isn't a case of morphing from GCA to PMR - it is that PMR can be a symptom of GCA in quite a lot of patients. The doses of pred for GCA are far higher than would be required to manage PMR so it isn't noticed until you get to a lower dose of pred which will vary from person to person. A PMR patient who got to 2mg of pred before their symptoms returned would be fairly satidifed I think.

Adrenal insufficiency can also cause similar symptoms and once you get to a low dose of pred that will become noticeable and it has. If you were good at 2mg I would stay there for a coupe of months - only persistent remaining at a low dose of pred that is barely enough to function day to day will encourage adrenal function to settle down and become more reliable.

[Snerd in reply to PMRpro]

thank You Pro!

[Snerd]

thank you Pro!