Hello, I am new to my diagnosis and am feeling quite overwhelmed. I am a 38 year old Mother of three. I went to my rheumatologist two weeks ago knowing that I have sarcoidosis and maybe fibromyalgia and left with PsA. I completely broke down finding out that I have a second autoimmune disease. I go back next week but I had to call them yesterday because over the weekend my legs and feet (which have been in pain for a long time already) began excruciating pain and a weird tingling. They put me on a steroid pack. I am already on Ultram, Gabapentin, low dose lyrica, multiple BP meds, tizanidine, diclofenac, and had an injection in the office two weeks ago. I know that my meds will be changing but I am in so much pain. Does anyone have any suggestions for me for home remedies? I have multiple signs and areas of pain throughout my body but my legs and feet are my worst. Thank you for your time.
Hi Clafrus! So glad youāve joined us.
I wonder whether the new diagnosis might be a blessing in disguise though I can see that you might feel it is rather heavily disguised right now. If the dx replaces the fibro one then at least there are, as I understand it, more obviously effective meds for PsA. Could be that like a lot of us you come to see the day you were diagnosed with PsA as the start of much better times. I do hope so.
I donāt know anything about sarcoidosis, I guess that complicates the picture. I wonāt google it 'cos Iāll probably get the wrong end of the stick but I hope youāll feel free to explain more about what youāre dealing with as time goes by, if you want to. I suppose my main home remedy is movement, any exercise you can do may help quite a lot with PsA pain. But obviously I donāt know exactly what youāre up against in terms of movement.
Mainly Iām just saying Hello and welcome. This is such a tough time for you, hang on in there.
Hiya Clafrus, welcome aboard.
While Iād be hesitant to give you any advise with having the sarcoidosis, about which unfortunately I know less than nothing, like Sybil, it wouldnāt hurt to run some of the ideas here on the board past your rheum via phone before attempting them.
As Sybil mentions, exercise is important. Not even heavy exercise, but something as simple as getting up and down stairs, if possible, or even walking back and forth across your kitchen can be a good start. If you sit for much of day in an office chair, itās important to move pretty constantly and do little exercises - google is your friend here, as little stretching movements and standing up for short periods get me through the day. Basically, keeping PsA joints stationary which may help a thousand different maladies can actually do more harm than good.
People have different levels of success with ice treatments and heat treatments on here, Iāve noticed. Iāve found that Ice does nothing for me personally with my pain, with heat working wonders, but your mileage may vary.
Again, run anything on here past your rheum just in case it interferes with your other auto immune disease - Iām sure the last thing anyone on here would want to do is make you worse at all.
Other than that, welcome aboard, feel free to vent and question and basically poke around. Watch out for tntlambs chickens, theyāve taken up with turkeys.
Warm greetings Clafrus, and welcome here.
I suffered with foot and leg pain for years: Iād lie in bed at night and not be able to sleep with the aching and throbbing from the waist down. My doctor shrugged it off. Tylenol helped. A bit. No, really, not that much. Then I discovered that a muscle relaxant (we can get them over the counter here in Canada) helped more than anything else. The doc thought that was pretty funny: she laughed and shrugged. At that point I was undiagnosed and of course I felt even more like the real problem was that I was a nutcase. Iām pretty sure that was the docās secret diagnosis too.
The leg pain disappeared once I was diagnosed and got on a biologic. In retrospect, I think the pain was tendinitis and enthesitis: unlike RA, PsA inflames more than joints, which is why I think it confuses doctors, and why a lot of us end up with (wrong) fibro diagnoses.
What Sybil says is so true: in the end, this may be a real blessing in disguise. There are far more treatment possibilities for PsA than for fibro: given the choice, I think Iād choose PsA. Not that we get a choice!
Glad youāre here, Carol!
Welcome! I have nothing to add to what Sybil and Dilorenzo already saidā¦ but welcome 
Welcome Clafrusā¦ Iām new here too, and just wanted to say hi and welcomeā¦
Quite the list Clafrus! I assume the gabepentin is for neuropathy (pain/tingling) in your feet, right? I had real success with it keeping my foot pain and tingling at bay until about a month ago. Iāve had to up my dosage of gabapentin to get the same kind of relief I had seen earlier because Iām in a treatment gap. Iām hopeful that once the inflammation is better controlled Iāll be able to switch back to the lower dose. I know this isnāt an āanswerā but maybe it can give you some hope!
Hello Clafrus, I searched foot and leg pain and found this thread. I was wondering if anyone else was having issues with pain in the legs and feet. Both started hurting for me about a week or so ago and my feet and ankles are swollen. I donāt know anything about the sarcoidosis but I soak my feet in Dr. Teals epsom salt and I add essential oils to it and it gives me a bit of relief even if only for a little bit. Check with your rheumy about the gabapentin. I had to get off of it because it was causing more pain than relief. Welcome to the group. I hope you feel better soon!!