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Is it still PMR or RA or OA?

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mphooey
mphooey

I have been diagnosed with PMR since May 2014. At that time I remember all body parts ached and I felt tired all the time. I also had muscle weakness in arms and legs. Went the  whole pred route, up and down.

In October I had a burst baker cyst in my L knee and had a cortisone shot. Now l. knee is stiff if I try to bend it too far but otherwise relatively ok. In December terrible sharp pain in r. knee, required a cortisone shot on New Years Eve ha ha. Settled things down for 2 weeks. Now pains are back. 

Rheum says I have RA. I don't ache anywhere else, at least not as bad as before. Little bit in shoulders, but I attribute that to rotator cuff tears (10 years dragon boating!) I am on 5 mg. pred and methotrexate. It's the knee that radiates pain all up and down leg. He won't give me the viscous shot or give me MRI because it won't make a difference. I doubt RA and I don't think PMR is an issue any more. Any other ideas?

BTW, this is playing havoc with my emotional state. I can no longer do those activities (cycling, snow shoeing) that are leg specific.

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  • artfingers
    artfingers mphooey

    Posted

    I know on top of my PMR I had knee issues (torn meniscus) and having the loose bits suctioned out and everything buzzed off and cleaned up really really helped my knee pain.  I am still an avid biker, hiker (mountains and Michigan woods) but did have to give up the squats and heavy leg bodybuilding unfortunately. Thankfully I am able to be pretty active still - age 64, 8 mg Rayos split dose and reducing slowly.  Possibly a knee arthroscopy might help.  My 2nd opinion ortho discovered the torn meniscus which was messing with all my leg-related activities.  I used to get bad Baker's cysts but those are gone now - maybe from the surgeries (both knees) or the pred?  I'd see an orthopedic specialist. It took me 2 or was it 3 before I got a proper diagnosis and cooincidentally my final ortho trained with my current (2nd) rheumatologist so he knows about PMR! Curiously my ortho is the one who reinforced what we all know about reducing pred very slowly and even in .5 increments. He's always a lot of fun to talk to about medical things.  I wish you luck.
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