hi I’m 32 and was diagnosed last week the consultant has given me some tablet form steroids as I’m unable to have the injection as I am diabetic and steroids and can affect my sugar levels so with tablets you can stop.Then a follow up to discuss which meds.
So after struggling at work for months I’ve gone to my GP for a sick note she said no it’s not that there’s only fluid on your hip there’s nothing in your blood it sounds like fybomygleia and on what basis has she made this diagnosis on she will have to continue with surgery as she’s running behind and will back to me after she’s spoke to the consultant Has this happened to anyone else???
Hi Shell, welcome to LWPsA from one Brit to another! It is all so much to take in isn't it? Ok, first thing I'd say to you is you can self-certify for the first week you are off work and then need a Doctors certificate after that ... so that gives you a breathing space.
What usually happens once you've seen the consultant is they write to your GP and confirm their diagnosis and what is happening treatment wise. This is likely what your GP wants to see before writing the Certificate for you. No harm in phoning your consultants secretary and explaining you need the letter sent to your surgery asap and seeing if they can email/fax it.
I hope though, the steroids work pretty quickly for you and by the end of the week you'll be feeling much better. If not and you still need a Certificate then you'll have chased things up with your consultant and can go back to your GP, explain how you're feeling and ask again. As you'll have seen from our Newbies Guide, the absence of blood markers is common in PsA so your GP cannot determine that it's fibro and not PsA on this basis.
Hope this helps.
Jules G said:
Hi Shell, welcome to LWPsA from one Brit to another! It is all so much to take in isn't it? Ok, first thing I'd say to you is you can self-certify for the first week you are off work and then need a Doctors certificate after that ... so that gives you a breathing space.
What usually happens once you've seen the consultant is they write to your GP and confirm their diagnosis and what is happening treatment wise. This is likely what your GP wants to see before writing the Certificate for you. No harm in phoning your consultants secretary and explaining you need the letter sent to your surgery asap and seeing if they can email/fax it.
I hope though, the steroids work pretty quickly for you and by the end of the week you'll be feeling much better. If not and you still need a Certificate then you'll have chased things up with your consultant and can go back to your GP, explain how you're feeling and ask again. As you'll have seen from our Newbies Guide, the absence of blood markers is common in PsA so your GP cannot determine that it's fibro and not PsA on this basis.
Hope this helps.
Hiya jules thanks for that it’s all so very confusing,
I haven’t looked at the newbies guide but will do so now thanks again.
You ask, Shell, whether this has happened to anyone else. Do you mean being confused? Oh, for sure. This is a very tricky disease: often hard to diagnose, and often difficult, even for a rheumie, to judge how severe it is. Confusing, yes. We’ve all been there.
Or do you mean, has anyone else had a doctor tell them there is nothing in their blood, so it must be fibro or something else. YES ABSOLUTELY FOR SURE. PsA is a relatively rare disease, and most GPs don’t come across many cases of it in their careers. When they do, someone else has usually done the diagnosis, as happened to you. Here’s the thing: half the people diagnosed with PsA show nothing in their blood that would suggest an inflammatory arthritis. Makes no sense, but it is so. (This is a PsA fact that comes from the highest PsA authority.) Your GP is assuming that, like it would if you hadrheumatoid, your blood would show inflammation. But that is wrong. You have inflammation, but for some reason it doesn’t show in blood tests. As Jules says, your rheumatologist has diagnosed you, and your GP hasn’t got the report yet. Don’t blame your GP – she just doesn’t happen to know one of the quirks of PsA. But that’s not her job.
Inflammation – whether it shows in your blood or not – can make you feel absolutely wretched. Besides pain, it can make you depressed and extremely tired. Jules’ suggestion about ringing the consultant’s secretary and asking if things could be speeded up a bit because you really need a sick note, is a good one.
Let us know how it goes, Shell.
PS Here’s a link to our Newbie Article about inflammatory markers (blood work) in PsA.
http://discussion.livingwithpsoriaticarthritis.org/forum/topics/inflammatory-markers-in-psa
Welcome, Shell! I'm fairly sure that all of us have been majorly confused about PsA / meds / doctors/ life with PsA at one point or another!
I was blessed to have a rheumatologist who listened to and believed me - and who was astonished at ZERO inflammation markers in my bloodwork that was drawn within 20 minutes of him seeing me in his office with ankles the size of tree-trunks (swollen to the point he didn't know how I managed to walk at all). I was also blessed to have a primary care doctor who believed the PsA diagnosis 100 percent. I've heard from others that their primary care doctors were hard to convince, blaming fibro or chronic fatigue or it being all in their mind.
I wish you well on your journey with PsA and hope you get it all sorted quickly and easily.