Posted , 8 users are following.
my father has had PMR for 5 years. He is short of breath and has not been able to reduce his Pred below 17mg per day. He saw a Elderly Care Physician yesterday who told him the anaemia is due to his PMR. Is this true?
0 likes, 14 replies
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dan38655 gee013
Posted
There are also iron-defiency anemia diagnoses, and the vague "loss of energy" that so many of us pmr sufferers experience. Many of us feel the need to take a midday nap, which often helps with getting on with the rest of one's day, and helps keep one from accrueing a shortage of sleep hours.
tina-uk_cwall dan38655
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gee013 dan38655
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constance.de gee013
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tina-uk_cwall constance.de
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denise76179 gee013
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My Mum had GCA and developed (as a side effect I assumed) anaemia . She went into remission from GCA after about 2 years and the anaemia stayed with her. Her Dr was giving her iron tablets and they seemed to do nothing much for her. Eventually she was diagonised with heamolyptic anaemia ( excuse spelling if its wrong) and they had to give her blood transfusions which didn't last very long 3-4 weeks, each one Her Specialist then gave her a massive dose 75mg of Pred for 2 weeks and that seemed to do the trick. She was completely off her pred when they did that so your father's case would be a little different. She's 89 and for the last 18months has been good although still a little tired lately
penelope10875 gee013
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I have pernicious Anaemia as well as PMR. I think there is a link, in that if we have one Auto immune problem then we tend to succumb to others. With an HB of 9.9 your father definitely needs medication, depending on the type of anaemia, if it is the pernicious type ,which is common in the elderly, he will not be able to absorb Iron tablets and needs regular injections. Pin the docs down to get the right diagnosis, is my advice.
EileenH gee013
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With a HB of 9.9 I'm not surprised he is short of breath - and frankly I'm not impressed that a patient with a 5 year history of PMR has not been noticed to be pretty severely anaemic much sooner. Amongst the first tests in a patient with query PMR should be a full blood count - to look for various other things that can cause the same symptoms - and Hb is one of the list on a full blood count.
And he needs the anaemia to be investigated if the ECP isn't already doing so. Many things are blamed on pred and PMR - but in the words of the song, it ain't necessarily so! It may well be the PMR - but having PMR doesn't excuse us from having other things and the anaemia of autoimmune disease is usually mild.
gee013 EileenH
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EileenH gee013
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Have you been with your father to an appointment rather than sending messages? That is likely to achieve more wherever you are - and I'm assuming you are in the UK? A change of GP might also help.
Something similar happened with my mother in law - she was breathless and dizzy and her GP pulled down her eyelid and said it must be her heart, take this digoxin and that'll be fine. She steadily got worse, he never checked her blood levels of digoxin - eventually she came to visit us in Germany and we took her to a colleague who said the heart dx was probably NOT right. We sent her home with a letter to her doctor who was a bit dismissive initially until he got the blood result back - and he then sent out the practice nurse to give her an iron injection within a couple of hours! Her Hb was 4.4! In her case it was polyps that were bleeding combined with a poor diet/malabsorption of the iron. You need vit C to absorb iron - she ate no fresh fruit and very few vegetables never mind iron-containing foods.
Whatever the CAUSE of the anaemia it needs to be addressed by improving the Hb level - then he will probably at least feel a bit better. Beyond that may be more difficult to achieve if the doctors aren't interested in finding the cause.
gee013 EileenH
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My father is very fond of his GP who visits very readily.
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EileenH gee013
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gee013 EileenH
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And to answer your question about location I am with an NGO in Nepal doing relief work post earthquake.
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EileenH gee013
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Your brother is very welcome to join this or any of the other forums - is he in the UK? There may be a support group near him where he could meet someone to get some help. The northeast support group has an excellent site with a lot of info and have a DVD and booklet about living with PMR which are available to buy for anyone.
Things are looking up a bit regards communication as it is actualy something drummed into healthcare professionals these days - but there is still a large bulk who have the "we know it all" attitude and can't cope with an intelligent clientel who can use the internet to find good and reliable information. They are particularly bad with older patients who don't have the background though.