temporal arteristis and the spleen ???

[jacquesgirl]

im a mother of 5 aged 39, last oct( 07) i was diagnosed with temporal arteritis, thought i had a bad dose of flu and was run down !!! but thanks to fab doctor who organised a blood test and put me on 40mg prednisolone the next day my sight wasnt damaged ,had several flare ups until march 08 things became a bit better, im down to 5m g prednisolone a day now, i have days where i ache all over feel hot and so very tired, my head thumps and the pain is incredible, i somewtimes get a painful lump  on the side of the bad artery, at the  base of skull behind my ear that seems to flare up, or the lymph node in my armpit that side gets swollen and tender.  But also ive noticed a painful sore tender area under my ribs left hand side, it seems to hurt more when my TA is bad, but its there all the time, sometimes it uncomfy to lay on that side as feels like theres tennis ball under my ribs etc, or it just feels tender to touch, looking online ive seen that the spleen is in that area and that the spleen deals with immune system, and the the TA is also immune related, does any one know if the 2 things are connected, or might there be sumthing up with my spleen thats been overlooked and thats what started the TA, ( as its more common in women over 70 ) im currently awaiting  an ultrasound scan, but my doctor is as baffled as i am as to why ive got this so young ( could it be down to stress had alot of that !!) im miserable on the steroids as ive put on over 3 half stone and now at 5ft 6 weigh nearly 14 stone, and am size 16/18, any one have any clues and id love to hear from anyone whos got this or had ot and been down this route !!  sue  xx

[sadie1246]

Did he order a sample of your artery from a simple surgery to verify the TA and an MRI of the brain?  This verifies it is TA and not severe migranes.  Do not take the predisone for a long period of time it has terrible side affects, I know I have been on it for about 10 years.  I have TA too and it is an auto immune disease.  It can cause cancer, bleeding of the skin in the sunlight and auto immune disease itself.  I had a stroke from taking it I was on 60 mg. a day, I took plaquenil too.   I developed diabetes and ended up in a wheel chair.

Please be careful on it as it makes you gain a lot of weight with that dosage.  I gained 60 lbs and had to loose it and it was very hard to do.  The only sure way to diagnose it is with the sample and an MRI.