Recent diagnosis of psoriatic-arthritis

Hi @jonv6068, welcome to the online community!

You used to be into fitness, especially running, but this year had to stop due to the onset of psoriatic arthritis in your back, knees and ankles.

Versus Arthritis has actually just launched a new campaign about moving and exercising with arthritis. It only started this week, so not everything is up yet, but I'd suggest looking up the Lets Move information - it may give you an idea of what exercise you can do or try out to get the same feeling you used to while still being kind to your body and taking your new circumstances into account:

I believe they are planning on having a you tube channel with different exercises too a little later.

In addition, here's some information which is a little more general but may be helpful:

The online community is a lovely place, the members are friendly and supportive. I hope you stick around and find more conversations to join in with.

Good to meet you,

Shell

Hi everyone!

Diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis Friday just gone !

age 44 hairdresser and I have it in my fingers 😣

Pain was very noticeable in April initially thought my fingers stuff due to not doing hair but it didn’t let up and could hardly hold the kettle or put my clothes away on hangers had a few g.p telephone appointments then referred to rhumatology initial appointment was telephone then xrays and Mri and diagnosis .

ive got to have urgent appointment for steroid injects and talk about management I guess medicine I am a bit scared 😟

I have had to stop working it’s so painful 😣

Anyone have any idea what medication I’ll be on ?

Hi @bernie

Welcome to the Online Community Forum, so pleased you have found us and are able to ask questions etc.

Have a look around the other forums as there might be other members that are going through the same thing as you.

I have attached the link regarding the Psoriatic Arthritis. This is the same one that is towards the top of this page.

AJ_x

Hi @jonv6068

i was petrified when he said I was to have joint injections and told me to get someone to drive me home !!

Actually turned out I had a jab straight into my bottom ! Which didn’t hurt at all I had no facial flushing and I slept really well try not to google steroid injections!!

just recently been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis myself ! It took 9 days for mine to kick in buts it’s fan not to have hot sausage fingers still have a bit of pain in my heels and under foot but it’s manageable! My rhumatology consultant said they last up to 2 months x

@Nen150880 so refreshing reading this. Im 29 and have been suffering with PSA for many years now. The level of fatigue is dreadful and side effects from a new medication I'm on is making even the small things in life difficult. Im a dental nurse and have a 3 year old son, two of which are physically and mentally draining as you can imagine. I feel so guilty and a failure as a mum and colleague, I get the impression they don't fully understand how I'm feeling or have any knowledge about PSA.

I work long hours and I'm off quite a bit at the moment. But the long days are zapping my energy and I'm really struggling with what to do long term. If anyone has any advice or suggestions please fire away. I'm feeling a bit lost!

Hey @jonv6068

Took 9 days to kick in increased pain first 2 days then lasted about 5 weeks In total didn’t help with my heel pain at all !

Im now on Sulfasalazine

Been on it nearly a week so far so good no side affects yet ! Thursday I increase dose by another tablet so 2 x daily week 3 3x daily up to week 4 4x daily hopefully I’ll be able to tolerate them !!

How are you coping with recent diagnosis?

I’’m feeling more positive now

I get forearm pain too, meaning the centre of the forearm, not a joint, for just minutes at a time. It's an unsetting "fullness" and looks very slightly enlarged in the middle until it stops. I thought it might be small minor blood clots of some kind as I also have had strange bruising phenomena since having covid, which has caused long-term blood clotting issues in some people as well as obviously being able to trigger autoimmune diseases such as PsA because any infection can do that. So I still wonder if it's related to the autoimmune conditions or a separate blood problem triggered by the same infection; no doctor I've mentioned it to has any idea what it might be.

It's probably not dangerous, I just want to feel confident in my diagnosis and weird stuff like this that isn't mentioned anywhere relating to PsA makes me wonder. It's too intermittent, infrequent and brief to have any chance of getting scanned while it's happening, though the GP got one done just in case it was caused by something that could be seen even when it's not happening. Doesn't go red, just feels "full" and uncomfortable, mildly painful. I'm diagnosed "probable psoriatic arthritis" by a rheumatologist, but not proven as the ankle scans only found synovial thickening (ultrasound) and a "tiny effusion" (MRI without contrast, which I have since learned can't tell the difference between effusions and synovial thickening), but he doesn't know what might be going on in my forearm. Have you been told what that might be?

Hi All, I have had psoriatic arthritis for over 22 years, yes there is life after diagnosis 😁.

I wont lie it has been a roller coaster with a wide variety of good times and bad times, drugs that work and drugs that didnt work me. My initial advice would be to educate yourself on what the disease is, the name can confuse people and would be more appropriately called inflammatory disease. There many reports of of diet changes and reduced stress level changes all helping.

For me the start was when my mum died, it could have been a trigger or just coincidence. I have had a number of drugs some cured me almost instantly but then stopped working after 3-4 years. I would recommend not to depend too much on steroids as you cant have them very often and they can have other impacts but help when the inflammation is at a peak. I am a fairly fit person and was a keen runner before it happened I stopped for a couple of years and then started slowly cycling again which is much gentler on the joints, swimming is also good. At the moment I am in a good place with a new drug and feeling good after 9 months of pain at a 2 or 3 out of 10, I am cycling and jogging a few times a week.

Remember inflammation makes you tired and you need more rest, I have often a short 20 min sleep each day when I am inflamed.

I hope this ramble helps someone and I am happy to chat and pass on my good and bad experiences. Its important to keep your mood up and remember there is plenty of life to be positive about once you get through any current issues.

Des

Great stuff, thanks for the "life after diagnosis" reminder... Sometimes I just catastrophise and think that it'll all just get worse and how did it come to this etc etc.

But maybe adalimumab kicks in and I will again have days when I forget what constant low pain is...

I've been getting strange bruises, too!

There were two times last year when I could have had covid but not sure and vaccinated now.

The rheumatologist and the GP said they don't know what's going on and suggested I just bump into stuff, which is untrue. Felt dismissed, as has been often been the case with getting medical diagnosis in my early 30s.

I thought maybe it's related to inflammation but perhaps covid! But won't find out now!

My son is 17 and it’s taken two years to get on medication for psoriatic inflammatory athritis he have been told when he’s fit enough it’s advisable to have a new knee rebuild and he cannot straighten his elbow out, awaiting a scan of his thorax because he has had a chronic cough for two years, fatigued and pain and swelling in most joints, he asks me everyday when are the tablets going to work, he missed out on the last two years, but accepting his diagnosis slowly xx

Hi, I’m Abbey, a mother, and I’ve been dealing with arthritis for quite some time. Over the last 2 to 3 weeks, my symptoms have gotten worse, so I began searching online for more information, but I couldn’t find anything truly helpful. A friend sent me a blog, and I realized what I was experiencing were symptoms of arthritis. While there’s no cure, there are ways to manage the pain and improve quality of life. I’m still exploring better ways to improve how I feel each day.