Controlling your PsA symptoms is good, but please don’t confuse it with controlling your disease. The cold, hard truth is this: the only scientifically-proven way of slowing down the damage of PsA is with specialized medications from your rheumatologist. And by “scientifically proven” we mean large-scale, well-designed research recognized by The National Institutes of Health and similar bodies.
Look at it this way: suppose you have an achy, sensitive tooth. You know that something is going on with it, but you find that as long as you don’t chew hard foods, you take some OTC medications, and you avoid drinking anything too hot or cold, you feel just fine. You hardly notice that you have a problem tooth. But in your heart you know that the only real solution to your problem is to go to the dentist and take his/her treatment advice. And you also know that if you put it off, you may well be in for greater misery than you have now. There you have it: dental symptom control is not the same as dental problem control. And so it is with PsA.
All of us are concerned with symptom control: without it, our quality of life would suffer. There is a whole section of this site devoted to complementary therapies for a very good reason! Massage, anti-inflammatory diets, acupuncture, gluten free regimes – some people find that they really help ease disease symptoms. But no matter how good your symptom control is, PsA can still be causing joint damage. And joint damage, once done, is permanent. That is why it’s so important to consider the advice of your rheumatologist very, very carefully. And that is why we call them “complementary therapies”: they are in addition to the treatments that we know have been proven to prevent the potential damage of PsA. And make no mistake about it: this disease, while it can be mild, can also be aggressive and highly destructive. It is with good reason that one of our mantras around here is “Fear the disease, not the drugs”.
How about: you may decide to use these in addition to…
This also makes me think that a description of how useful the terms “mild” and “severe” are when talking about this disease is needed. I see a lot of PsA where folks say, “oh, I only have a mild case” but they are just assuming that mild symptoms mean mild disease.
Thanks, Claire, that would be good. Tom knows that it ain’t nuttin’ to do with my pay grade – the truth is that after the introductory sentence I’d go off on a tirade! LOL
You are so kind to say so, and I am glad that you think so, but there are quite a few people who would very much disagree with you. My mom used the pearls before swine analogy to me this morning, and while It may be harsh, it fits. sigh
I do have to work some over the weekend for my paying job. I will be on vacation late next week so, maybe then would be a better time for me to work on it? It’s not an urgent need, do you think?
Seenie said:
Thanks, Claire, that would be good. Tom knows that it ain’t nuttin’ to do with my pay grade – the truth is that after the introductory sentence I’d go off on a tirade! LOL
No, not urgent at all, Claire. When you’re ready! I’m glad to hear that you are well enough to be back in the saddle. Herding swine with your pearls on? (The pearls and swine thing isn’t an expression we use in the backwoods where I live. LOL)
I will be on vacation late next week so, maybe then would be a better time for me to work on it? It’s not an urgent need, do you think?