I empathize with the headaches.
The headaches were only at the start and lasted for 5 weeks. I’d never had headaches before. Once diagnosed the high dose of steroids stopped them and they never returned. GCA has clear symptoms but is rare so it took my doctor 4 weeks to figure it out.
When I was trying to figure out what was wrong I was at the doctors at least once a week, but now I only see the rheumatologist every 4 months. Still at the doctor monthly for blood tests.
Sorry to hear about your headaches but an espresso before bed sounds good to me!
Symptoms of GCA or Temporal Arteritis: temporal headache that appears suddenly and does not stop, jaw claudication (hurts to chew, can’t open mouth wide), fatigue, night sweats.
GCA can make you go blind if untreated or have a stroke. On the health forums there are woman who have lost sight in one eye. Treatment is steroids which have intense side effects, but you get off them eventually, usually after 2 years because the GCA kind of burns itself out. I won’t go blind now because it is being treated.
Only 1 case per 10,000 people over 50. My doctor had never seen it before but another doctor in the practice knew about it because his mother had it.
Occurs mostly in older woman - over 60, white, Northern European. Occurs more in Scandinavian countries. Brits have Viking blood from all those invasions so there is more of it here (my ancestry is British).
Cause? Genetic maybe, an old virus in the body maybe.
It’s all very interesting. Another complicated auto-immune disease. Nice to know that my body is doing this to itself.