FAO Elle

I hope I am remembering the right person, anyone a while back we were
discussion rheumatology and you said you had psoriatic arthritis and I
thought it was unlikly to have any relevance to me as I don't have any skin
psoriasis, anyway today I discovered I have the tissue type that is closely
related to psoriasis and as my sister has psoriasis, it's all pointing in
that direction, I don't see the rheumatologist again for a while, until
after I've had an MRI, but I'm keen to find out more, I googled, but I
didn't come up with anything helpful.

Cheers

Anne

Anne Rogers wrote:
I hope I am remembering the right person, anyone a while back we were
discussion rheumatology and you said you had psoriatic arthritis and I
thought it was unlikly to have any relevance to me as I don't have any skin
psoriasis, anyway today I discovered I have the tissue type that is closely
related to psoriasis and as my sister has psoriasis, it's all pointing in
that direction, I don't see the rheumatologist again for a while, until
after I've had an MRI, but I'm keen to find out more, I googled, but I
didn't come up with anything helpful.

Cheers

Anne

Hi Anne

You've got the right person. Yeah I didn't really have any psoriasis
either so I was very surprised. The only clue my rheumatologist had was
a former physician had noted in my chart that I had a couple of
"lesions" at one time, I then recalled that I had a few spots of very
dry scaly skin but nothing you associate with psoriasis, which can get
pretty gross. I do have a bit of the "sausage fingers" but thought they
were just kind of stubby! Also apparently psoriasis sometimes shows up
on the scalp where your hair hides it. I also had a few small pits in
my nails. When I asked my mum she recalled that I had some psoriasis as
a baby and also my nan suffered from it.

Here are some sites:
http://www.arthritis.ca/types%20of%2...efault.asp?s=1
http://www.rheumatology.org/public/f...ew.asp?aud=pat
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pso...hritis/DS00476
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic1954.htm
http://www.paalliance.org/

The last one is actually an organization called The Alliance for Action
on Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, it is based in the UK.

As usual, read medical websites with caution and don't panic when they
highlight worst-case scenarios!

The thing with this type of arthritis as I understand it is that it
tests negative for the rheumatoid factor when you have a blood test. I
never had an MRI, I wonder how that can help diagnostically.

Anyway maybe they will see their way to at least prescribing you
Celebrex (the anti-inflammatory, safe for BF), surely it would help
relieve some of the pain you are enduring!

Elle

thanks Elle, it will be a while before I discuss this any further with the
specialist as I won't see him until after the MRI. He ordered the MRI
because there are so many things he needs to look for, this is only one
possiblities and if I do have it, it's probably only part of it, though
having read the links you gave it does seem fairly likely I do have it,
particularly I have enthesopathy (characterized by tender spots at sites in
the body where tendons join bones. This can cause symptoms such as pain at
the back of the heel or in the sole of the foot.), which I'll need to make
sure the doctor knows, as I'm not sure I mentioned it or he discovered it,
though it is in my notes, which had gone walkabout. At the time I was
assessed I only had pain in one area, hips and pelvis and lower back, but
before that I have had more general pain and since then, particularly what I
suffered at the end of the pregnancy has a lot of things that suggest it
could have been a flare up of this. Unfortunately I've had bad reactions to
antimflamatories on the past, but I'm giving them another go, no reaction
yet, but it seems to be a build up effect, after about a week I suddenly
keel over!

Anne