Birthday Dinner

[William]

Greg, it's what Bob has. PMR...

Polymyalgia rheumatica is a rheumatic autoimmune inflammatory disease that affects the lining of the joints or around the joints (periarthritis) and, in rare cases, the arteries.

Roger, my friend was fine, except for a-fib, and his doctor decided he needed to be on a statin to help with the potential of a stroke. He started the statin and within days he had the typical reaction of ache and stiffness. He immediately stopped the statin, but nothing improved, it actually got worse. When it did not clear up the doctor ordered blood work and he was diagnosed with PMR. The doctors won't admit it, but the statin started this slippery ball down the road, and it was just so his cholesterol could get lowered 9 points.

Bill

[electra225]

I can't keep my medical terminology straight. Bob sure when thru it with his PMR. Thanks for refreshing my memory, Bill.

[Firedome]

That arterial factor you mentioned Bill is the most worrisome part. PMR can sometimes develop into "temporal arteritis" in which the arteries in the temple area of the head become affected and subsequently can cause blindness. According to my Rheumatologist it happens in about 15% of PMR cases, so it's not all that rare. Thus the use of steroids becomes a balancing act: they are deleterious in themselves, but if PMR is not treated correctly it has that potential to cause total loss of vision. Sort of a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't situation.

What is most affecting me is stiffness/discomfort in fingers, hands, shoulders, neck... it makes doing any manual dexterity stuff difficult, all the stuff I like to do like soldering and working on the cars. I can type on here if I hold my fingers sort of straight and I kinda hunt and peck with my index finger anyhow. But for some unknown reason it doesn't affect the legs much, meaning I can still mow the lawn, which is a good thing as it's one exercise I can do, and need to do.

[William]

I hope for your sake and my friend's sake the PMR can and will remain under control. I remember when all of this first happened. No matter what he did he could not get comfortable, he was stiff as a board, and every joint in his body ached. With the steroid, he can function pretty close to normal.
Bill