Would like to take a poll.............To see how many with PMR have suffered a traumatic event in their lives before the PMR struck them? Have spoken to a few people that this has happened to, and am wondering if such a shock to the body would bring this on............If you care to share, let us know.............................Thanks, Georgiana
Hi Georgia, Yes I think trumatic events could be a triger to PMR. In the three years prior my being diognoised with PMR I experienced 3 very trumatic events in my life. I also think constant and extreme stress could also be a triger to PMR. I don't necessarily believe trama or stress cause PMR but I do think they may be trigers to genetic tendency to the disease. That is just my opinion and I don't have anything to support is except my own personal experiences. I look forward to learning how others feel about this qquestion.
Hope you have a great day and get a lot of answers to your poll.
Mariellen
A few weeks before I had the diagnosis I had a strange cough that lasted a couple of weeks. I had no traumatic event but I retired at the age of 67 after two years of halftime (I wanted to continue on halftime). I donīt know if this could have influenced my state of health. Ragnar No traumatic stress for me. I believe mine was excercise induced. I have always been an excerciser and I liked to change routines every 12 months. Pilates and an the exercise ball were the 2 classes I was taking and had been for 8 months An opening for the "pilates reformer" was available, I did that, and felt that I had a great workout. Two days later, I could barely walk, went to the doc thinking I had TWO pulled hamstrings..............then the tests began.....hip and back xrays, MRI, physical therapy, chiro...then back to my pcp who sent me to the rheum. doc. I believe that the pilates reformer machine triggered something going on in my body and set off the PMR. I am blessed that I have no stress in my life. My children are 21 and 25, one at Cal Poly and one gainfully employed.......my home life is great.........I am one of the younger ones....53 in December. I do remember have some tenderness /sorebness in my left hip/groin area and left knee for serveral months, nothing debilitating, and I ignored it. Then when the PMR hit hard and heavy, I believe that something was "trying to flare or start up" Who knows, this condition is goofy. I am now at 12.5 pred, and will taper to 10 on Sunday and scheduled to stay on that for 60 days, (if blood work shows that the imflammation is reducing)and then wait for the rheum doc to advise. Sorry for the novel Janet Like Puffy, I too think mine was brought on by exercise. I had been weight training for about 3 weeks,and the day before this stuff started I had had a really good, hard work out, then all you-know-what broke out. God bless you all,Faye
I, too, worry about osteoporosis, esp. since I have osteopenia already(I took a two yr. course of forteo, and have actually gained bone per my bone density tests in 4/06.) But, I get immediate results from prednisone. My infectious dis. dr started me on 30 mg of prednisone on Friday, and by Saturday I was able to get up early enough to shower & dress & go watch my little granddaughter's basketball practice. Today, I am practically painfree, although I still get really tired if I'm on my feet for any length at all. I lived through 20 years of Lyme Dis. & RA, and never thought I could experience pain to equal those, but I was able to carry on my normal life w/those, but not w/this PMR. It has nearly made an invalid of me, but now I have hope that I'll be able to resume an active life. I had what was thought to be a reaction to an antibiotic in Feb. 06 and the pain I'd experienced since 9/05 upped about 100%, and I had trouble even walking to the bathroom, and couldn't even lift my arms. So, my great husband of 44 yrs took care of me and our home, but then he was diagnosed a couple of weeks later w/esophageal cancer. I knew I was going to have to take care of him instead of the other way around, but I could barely move. My PCP put me on 40mg pred. a day and I immediately came out of the pain, but my endocronologist in April left her a note to get me off of the pred asap. Well, as I went down in dosage, the pain returned, big time. It was a horrible summer, w/returns to my PCP and two rheumys, and insistance I go on the RA drugs. They just couldn't look beyond my RA,which has been in total remission for 6 yrs. Finally, I wrote to my infectious disease dr and cried out for help. He gave me appx. 40 min and just listened to my symptoms, checked out all of my test results over the comp. and told me that my high sed rates & my immediate response to the prednisone, along w/ the areas that were painful, led him to believe I have PMR. That was Thursday. I started the 30mgs of prd. on Fri. & it's like night & day. Sorry about the book(I always wanted to be a writer!) Have a good day. Faye
No traumatic event for me. Just two cases of what felt
like bad flu within a month's time before the PMR set
in.
Reni Hi Georgianna, I'm glad you're doing this. I've always wondered. My husband died a month or so before I started noticing the pain. Then another traumatic thing happened in my close family about a month later. I didn't know what it was for a long time and it got worse and worse. LIke everyone else I suffered terribly before I finally got to a rheumatologhist and was dxed. Good luck on your survery.
I definitely think that the onset of this disease is exercise related. My step-sister gave me a pedometer for Christmas 2004. I used it religiously and was delighted to increase my walking and running throughout 2005. I was playing tennis several days a week, lifting weights, and going to exercise classes at the gym. I was in the best shape I had ever been in and very proud of my condition at the age of 62. Four days after my birthday in September 2005, I went to a very strenuous step class and was by far the oldest there. I made it through the class with flying colors. However, the next day I could barely get out of bed. It was the beginning of PMR. I had experienced a little bit of pain in a shoulder earlier in the summer that I attributed to having lifted too much weight. But now I wonder. By November I had frozen shoulder and had trouble getting through some days. I took prednisone at a low dose (7.5 mg and then tapering down one mg. per month). I finally got off of it completely in August after I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. I am once again in some pain, but do not want to take prednisone again if I can manage to get through this pain.
Thanks to you all for a very informative correspondence.
Adrienne34
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