I had my Rheumatologist follow up today.....

[spoof99]

and I am still in the dark, she was more forceful in the assertion that I do not have GCA as all the testing done has come back negative.

She firmly suggested it was probably a stroke that caused some of the GCA like symptoms even though the 2 scans I have had on my head showed no signs of a stroke!

She is doing more bloodwork to see if it may be some other type of autoimmune issue, but she said it was unlikely it would show anything she is also scheduling another ultrasound of my neck because of some swelling in the glands around my carotid artery.

I also have a stress test scheduled with a cardiologist next week....

So pretty much still in the dark and when I ask her about the fatigue and the tired legs she has no answers, so we will continue to taper the prednisone and see what happens next stop 10 mg.

Personally I don`t think it was a stroke and all the test were negative because I had been on Prednisone for 5 weeks before any testing was done.

[piglette]

I suppose your rheumatologist was only surmising and has no proof of the problem anyway. It is now a matter of checks to see if they can show what really is the problem. I hope they can tell you soon.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I would agree with your assessment Spoof99. After 5 weeks of high dose pred, the chances of any positive tests were small.