Have had Psoriasis for over forty years and have recently been diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis,which is a long long time overdue.
I initially started on Otezla and now have added methotrexate.Also been on prednisolone 5mg twice a day,and experienced a dramatic decrease in my pain literally overnight after taking the first two tablets of prednisolone.My rheumatologist said that if that happened it was confirmation of an inflammatory process.
I am angry that no other specialist or Dr I have seen did not put the obvious together for me much much sooner,with my long standing symptoms of chronic muscloskeletal pain,fatigue,etcetc.The dermatologist I saw at the end of last year due to a long bad flair just shook his head and could not believe that I had not been diagnosed with PSA and had not been treated before this.He was fantastic.I had narrowband uvb straight away and was referred to my current rheumatologist who knows his stuff.Feeling relieved that I am finally being treated.
It’s always a shame when this happens. I’m glad that you have finally received a diagnosis and are being treated now. What a relief that must be!
This happened with my mom, with severe damage done to her IP joints (fingers) over a period of fifteen plus years. She started treatment two years ago and has been responding nicely.
Sadly, Enigma, what has happened to you is not uncommon. Many of us were years (even decades) being diagnosed, and some of us also have been damaged by that delay. Another newbie here, Flow, has had an experience similar to yours.
Have you found our Newbies’ Guide yet? It is a great collection of everything that you always wanted to know about PsA. And probably a few things that you didn’t, as well!
We’re glad that you found us, and we hope that you will be too.
Seenie is so not joking when she says that waiting as long as decades to get a diagnosis is not unusual. She recently mentioned on another post that her rheumy said that people with PsA do not seem to feel as much pain as one might expect when the disease is severe. And I found myself thinking 'perhaps that's because we wait so flipping long to be diagnosed and treated that we get used to it!'.
I guess we are where we are and the key thing is that you have a sense of relief, that's good to hear. The anger is, in my opinion, a healthy thing - better to express it than to bottle it up.
It's great that prednisolone has helped so much with pain and I wish you well with Mtx and Otezla. I hope you get much improvement down the line.
I’m in a similar situation, ouch. I was diagnosed with PsA on Thursday, and some sort of inflammatory arthritis about 4 months ago. My first steroid injection made a massive difference to me too - suddenly nothing much hurt, after 4 years of constant pain and more years of problems. I am absolutely furious at the moment - trying to work my way through that…
That sounds very frustrating! In my personal experience, I have noticed that unless a condition is somethingthat a provider is really familiar with, diagnosis is more difficult. Nothing beats experience, and a lot of GPs have never seen PsA.We have to remember that they are familiar with many conditons, but there is no way that they can have aa solid working knowledge of each one. Unless you've had some good , hands-on experience with a disease process, It is much harder to make a solid diagnosis. Which is, of course, why the specialists are so important to us. I don't mean for this to sound like an excuse, more that I want to help us better understand why this happens. It doesn't make it any less frustrating. My GP is amazing, and has learned right along with me, so that's super cool. He's also the kind of guy who isn't afraid to say when things are out of his depth and refer me to a specialist. With this disease, I think the two most important things are patient education (so that we can self-advocate), and a good team of docs. It took around two years, 3 rheumatologists, and 2 pain management docs to get my dream team, but it was worth all of the stress and work to get the docs I have. I am so lucky to have them.
I hope you feel welcome here, and are able to get the care that you need now that you have a diagnosis. If you need anything, just ask. Oh! Check out the Book Recommendation under the Newbies Guide. It's a must-read for all PsA patients.