Welcome, ktel
And I say “yay” to being proactive as well. Many of us here had strange and transient symptoms for years which made life difficult. But they remained undiagnosed because, well, you know … it’s picking up those heavy grocery bags, menopause, you need a new mattress, if you’d bend your knees when you pick things up, hormones, you should exercise more and lose a few kg, there’s stress at work … and so it goes until finally someone does a head-slap and says “there’s something wrong here”. And if you can get to that point sooner rather than later, you’re lucky. I wasn’t. We can’t diagnose you, but if it is PsA, research leaves no doubt: early diagnosis and aggressive treatment gives the best prognosis.
You’re going to your GP soon. Unfortunately, our experience here (I think I can speak for a lot of people …) is that GPs know very little about rheumatology. So it helps if you have done your reading. If you go in and simply say your fingers are fat and painful, you know what you are going to get. You’re going to have to go in with your grocery list of what you have noticed, and what you have read.
The GP will do blood work. If your results show no inflammation outside the normal range, the doc will probably rule out an inflammatory arthritis. And this is where the process often goes horribly wrong: 51% of people with PsA have inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP) in the normal range. It means nothing. You still need to see a rheumatologist.
GPs aren’t generally a whole lot better at dermatology than they are at rheumatology, unfortunately. Flaky dry skin? I was told to use lotion. WEird toenails? It’s fungus. The GP got it wrong, but a dermatologist identified psoriasis immediately. Don’t be put off: get a derm referral at the same time. The rheumatologist will want a skin diagnosis to nail a PsA diagnosis, if that is what you have.
The bad news is that in my neck of the province, it is a 6-9 month wait for both specialties. I don’t know how it is in the golden horseshoe. So you should get both referrals at the same time, or you could be well over a year before you get a definitive diagnosis.
And a definitive diagnosis is what you want. If it is PsA, with a solid diagnosis, you will be able go here. And that is the place with world class PsA researchers, who leave nothing to chance. They literally turned my life around (a good fifteen years to late).
So, again, welcome here. We’re glad you found us, and we hope that you will be glad as well.