Headaches and nausea anyone else?

I just had my latest hospital appointment, I will be starting methotrexate very soon as my next step. However, at each appointment I have told the Dr that my bundle of symptoms when things are not going well includes nausea, cracking headaches, eye aches in the muscles behind my eyes, fatigue, sweats, and aching entheses, plus a scalp that would rival a snow globe. (I know, it’s a beautiful combination!). He seems skeptical that the head and eye aches and nausea are PsA symptoms, but they are mine. We ruled out any medication issues.
Am I alone in this ?

Simply said nope, you are not alone, though many your symptoms are more those of Scalp psoriasis than specifically PsA. I’d do an end run were I you, and get a dermatologist involved. MTX isn’t likley to touch it. Scalp psoriasis is a horse of a different color and can cause all manner of nasty symptoms.

The advantage of the dermie is they can fast track you on biologics not to mention when prescribed for psoriasis as primary, they have much higher loading doses making them effective that much more quickly…

I have experienced pressure and itchy eyes before. One thing the eye doctor will tell you is to watch for these things if you have psa. It is good to visit eye doctor once a year to check eyes due to risks of vision problems. Fatigue is a huge problem for me and to remedy that I take medication for that. I use tar shampoo for scalp. Headaches could be something related to psa as the chances of getting migraines. No you are not alone.

Ugh, nzbee! The scalp psoriasis—I feel your pain (famous quote from a past US President)!

But, I wanted to tell you what worked for me and my scalp psoriasis was relentless until I found this. It’s MG217 Medicated shampoo. It doesn’t smell very good, but for me it was between a stinky head or a constantly itchy, flaky scalp. You can find it on Amazon.com. Some of the chain stores—Wal-Mart, Target—sell MG217 lotions and ointments, but I liked the shampoo because it actually cleared up my scalp psoriasis completely. At first, I used it every day, but eventually I was able to get by using it 3 times a week. It was great to not have any flakiness or itching!!! When I started Enbrel injections 4.5 years ago, I was able to stop using MG217 shampoo because I haven’t had any scalp psoriasis in all that time! (I love my Enbrel!).

As far as the headaches, I can’t help much there. I never had it diagnosed as migraines, but I’ve had all the migraine symptoms occasionally in the past (also before starting Enbrel) with and without pain (phantom migraines?)…luckily, they were infrequent—maybe 4 x a year, and worse years ago before I was ever diagnosed with PsA when I smoked and took birth control pills. Anyway, the only thing that works for headaches of any kind for me is Excedrin or a store brand of it. Good stuff, and I’ve recommended it to friends and coworkers who’ve also had good results from it (it works best if you take it at the first sign of a headache coming on).

I hope you have good luck with your treatment plan—don’t give up!

Behind eye.

You are not alone. We all have moments of defeat. I have six autoimmune diseases and some days are harder than others but i find strength in helping others. I changed my diet to vegan, no sugar or caffeine. After the first 30 days I no longer had the headaches and the inflammation decreased. This might help you as well. I also had my water tested by the city and found that was a major problem. So I had a filtered system installed and my skin is finally starting to look better.

I know it is hard to make some of the changes but once I started feeling better it was worth the change. Try the vegan thing for 60 days and see what happens. Good luck and remember we are all here for you.

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Thanks everyone for your support and suggestions. :grinning:

Grandma, I love you. One week on MG217 shampoo and I think my scalp psoriasis has calmed down by about half. I do smell like a freshly tarred road but the itching has reduced and I haven’t been tempted to descale by scratching as much. Its not cheap at £18.99 but after 3 years of snowglobe shoulders its brilliant.

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Aw, I love that you love me! It makes me feel so good that my advice helped somebody! :heart_eyes:
The smell is noxious, but worth every annoying sniff of it. Hopefully, a little conditioner will neutralize it some???
For me, continued use of the MG217 helped even more. At first I washed my hair every day, but eventually if I missed a couple days it didn’t matter. Or, I could wash my hair with regular shampoo occasionally and my psoriasis didn’t act up.
You made my day! I’m so glad your scalp is responding to the MG217! :heart:

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Thought I would share what the doctor gave me to stop the crazy itches under the skin and it works really well–Hydroxyzine. I had never taken that type of allergy medicine but it does wonders.

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The various anti-psoriasis shampoos do work well. mIne is called Nizoral. I only have to use it a couple of times.

As for the headaches etc - I’ve had them off and on, but nothing too bad. Eye problems are really quite common.

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You didn’t say what you are on now? Many of the meds cause headaches and nausea. If you have been diagnosed with PsA, you should be seeing a rheumatologist, not MD…they do not know enough about your condition.

Eye issues are common with PsA…in fact Uveitis is a medical emergency. Don’t fool around with this.