New subscriber, psoriatic arthritis

GiselleIV4Boat

Hello, what a great site. I have psoriatic arthritis and every morning I feel as if I have been in a car crash the night before. I have had my appointment with the Consultant delayed by a couple of months and I feel in a lot of pain. As a nurse myself I tend to manage with paracetamol alone and as much positive thinking as possible. I have just ordered Turmeric capsules and use other alternative meds. My feet hurt, my right knee is swollen, my left shoulder and a finger on each hand is painful. I know there are many with more symptoms and much more pain and I completely emphasise with my co-sufferers... any advice would be hugely appreciated, I am ex forces and ex prison service by background and work in the private healthcare sector (mental health), not sure if I can keep working at present. Many thanks for reading my anguish, first time I have ever spoken about it I think.

[Deleted User]

Hello GiselleIV4Boat and welcome to the forums on behalf of the moderation team.

I am very sorry to hear about your Psoriatic Arthritis; you do sound to be suffering and having your rheumatology appointment postponed is not what anyone needs when they are pain. I am so glad you have found this forum as talking about what you are going through can be really helpful.

Am I right in thinking you are already diagnosed and this appointment was with rheumatology? If so have you access to a rheumatology nurse for advice about tweaking medication you might already be on or bringing your appointment forwards again? It is awful to be in such pain without any hope of solving it.

If you are newer to your arthritis it might help to try other things in the meantime; some people find ice (in tea-towels) helps or heat (wheat-bags/hot water bottles) soothing. Are you taking any anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen as well as the paracetamol? Your GP can prescribe something stronger to help while you wait to see your consultant.

If you are new to Psoriatic Arthritis this might help:

https://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/inflammatory-arthritis-pathway.aspx

Whether you are new to it or not this information about Pain might be worth a read:

https://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/daily-life/pain-and-arthritis.aspx


We have a great community here, who have lots of experience of arthritis, I know they will make you very welcome and help in any way they can.


Best wishes,

Ellen.

dreamdaisy

Hello, I have PsA and will soon be starting my 22nd year of the fun. I have forgotten what it is like to be pain-free and as a result life is far easier to manage. Positive thinking will help but may need some better support than paracetamol - over the years I have worked my way up the co-codamol scale, starting at 8/500 and now resting on 30/500. My GP deals with this as I also have OA. I keep that to a minimum so I have an escape route for the truly rough times. It may be worth going to see your GP to discuss your pain relief options.

I also use distraction as pain relief and find that very effective: I remember an exercise I did when attending a course about living with a chronic condition, we were asked to focus on our main area of pain for thirty seconds (which was timed). They crawled past. We were then asked to focus for thirty seconds on how we would spend £10,000 (that flew past - I opted for diamonds!) We were then shown that, in fact, forty-five seconds had passed.

Do you have a rheumatology unit helpline to contact? If I am in extremis I ring mine and they will fit in an appointment with one of the nurses at the end or beginning of clinic. I wasn't diagnosed for five years so tried all the alternative stuff, sadly to no avail, and once I fully understood what was going on I'm not surprised. I was born with a faulty immune system which has been a nuisance ever since but these troubles can begin at any stage of life and maybe for no reason. I was a natural candidate, my parents both had auto-immune trouble family histories but dodged the bullets they so kindly passed on to me - lucky them! Is there a family history of bothers such as eczema, asthma or psoriasis in your background? DD

stickywicket

Oh dear! That doesn't sound good. Especially in your job.

If this will be your first rheumatology appointment you will have some way to go before any 'proper' meds start kicking in and, although I'm a big believer in as little pain relief as possible, I think you're going to need more than paracetamol. I know that many rheumatologists prefer patients to steer clear of any anti-inflammatories or steroids before their first appointment as they can mask the problem but stronger pain relief might be needed.

ARUK did a very good survey on complementary therapies and capsaicin came out best. You say you're taking 'other alternative meds'. Please check with your pharmacist that these won't interact with each other.

Good luck with it all. Once stabilised on 'proper' DMARDS, things should be much easier.