Like many of you, I have had a run of very bad health (sinus infection, terrible cough w/laryngitis, then severe aching joints and swollen thyroid) for months, all while trying to work. Everything was treated as a discreet problem, until I started fussing and demanding to see an ENT and get tests for inflammation. I have worked for 17 1/2 years in an inner-city mission/shelter, helping people with welfare problems, tenancy issues, etc. I figured all those years in a high-stress environment had caught up with me - and I was on the verge of retiring anyway. (I am fortunate that, unlike many of you who got it when you were younger, GPA waited until I was 64 years old to strike).

Long story short - the ENT, to his credit, threw a fit and put me into the ER, writing a very strong letter directed to the respirology department. While everyone was slightly rolling their eyes (thinking this ENT was a little over the top), this did end up with my getting a diagnosis of GPA - which I probably wouldn't have got until much later, when more damage had been done. (It doesn't seem to have got to my lungs or kidneys.) So although my parting gift on my retirement date, Dec. 19, was the diagnosis of GPA, I am very thankful everything worked out as it did.

Right now, I'm on 50 mg. of prednisone for a bit, then as supposed to drop down to 25 mg. We'll see how it works. At least I can walk again!!! (I had a whole month where I was living on Tramacet, while going to work/limping around - it was awful.) I am also very grateful that, if I have to have a disease like this, I live in the time and place we live in - if this had happened in the 1950s, or if I lived in a 3rd world country...well, we all know what that would mean.

I look forward to hearing/reading your stories and thoughts - it's good to have community in this odd situation.

Susan