ARE OFF AND ON TEMPORAL HEADACHES GCA

[SVLady]

I was diagnosed with PMR in June after three months of testing. Blood work was always normal even before steroids. I started on 15 mg of Prednisone and now, with the help of Kevzara, have reduced to 5mg a day. I have had little or no pain while doing a rather fast reduction but recently have had infrequent temporal pain with no other symptoms. The temples, bilateral, are tender to the touch when there is a very low grade, short lived, headache that occurs once or twice a day. No jaw or vision problems and no new pain. I have read on this forum that dropping steroids can sometimes cause headaches and am hoping this is the explanation for mine. I see my Rheumatologist next week but was reaching out to my very informed and helpful colleagues on this site. He is very responsive and listens well to my input and concerns. Thank you for your input.

[SnazzyD]

Does Tylenol do the trick? When you get it, do you anything different in response? Does it follow any particular activity or time of day?

Are you familiar with sternokleidomastoid muscle tension? Problems with this can cause symptoms that mimic GCA. Have a read of this if you’re not familiar with it.

healthline.com/health/stern...

[SVLady in reply to SnazzyD]

Those symptoms sure are similar to GCA and are good to know about. I do feel like my sinuses are a bit inflamed so that could be adding to the temporal discomfort. I have one pair of sun glasses that press on the temple area that do seem to bring the pain on. I just took a Tylenol Arthritis caplet to see if that takes away the slight headache. Thanks for bringing these other ideas to my mind. As always, help is right here at hand from you folks.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Impossible to tell but do try SnazzyD's suggestions first of all.

Being on both pred and Kevzara should make it less likely - it does the same thing as Actemra so also works for GCA inflammation.

I would perhaps slow down on the pred reduction - and see if it settles. You are now at the adrenal function returning level and that will take a few months, the usual estimate is a month for each month yo uhave been on pred. And see what the rheumy says next week.

[SVLady in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks as always for your sage input.

[MegfromOz]

sorry for the delayed reply but I don't think I can help you as tapering has been problematic for me and I'm not 100% I have PMR. the specialist is suggesting Spondyloarthritis.

Good luck with everything