My ESR levels have often been high with the PsA, starting at around 20 when I first got the arthritis, and at one point peaking at 109 when I was in between meds. At that point i went on the hydroxychloroquine and slowly but surely it came down back to the 30s and I felt better, before rising again to the 50s when the tablets stopped working. During the summer, when I started MTX (and was still on steroids) it plummetted down to about 13, before rising again to the mid-20s. Five weeks later, last weekās blood test shows it to be back at 83 - while still on the MTX and the hydroxychloroquine.
That seems nuts to me. True, I have been in agony with the PsA for the last three or four weeks - equal to the worst it has ever been. Although, oddly, today my pain is half of what it was yesterday, although I have a sneaky feeling thatās because my immune system is fighting a skin infection on my leg.
But do other people have levels that shoot up and down like that? The GP didnāt seem concerned, other than that it showed the PsA was far from being under control. She said my white blood count was fine and my RBC was pretty much ok (very slightly low, but only VERY slightly), and that was the main thing. She also pointed out that the slight infection might have played a part too. There was also the suggestion that the āsweatsā that had been put down to the MTX tablets might actually be due to the inflammation levels being so high!
But these wayward tests always put me on edge, and I normally end up panicking that it is something completely unrelated to PsA that is being missed! Am I alone with this worry?