New, though rather old

Welcome Greetings and Introductions
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I mistakenly posted this in General Discussion: sorry for the redundancy

Hello,

For years I’ve had a little psoriasis here and there, which I have ignored, as my wife tells me I do many things.

I’ve always been very active - love hard work, hiking, exercise, and so on - and have as a result had the usual complement of orthopedic issues: torn meniscus, spectacular ankle sprains, torn ligaments, carpal tunnel, broken wrist,and so on. I’ve just carried on through them. I’m very good on following up with physical therapy stuff, which has helped.

Over the past tens years or so, though, I’ve had a succession of weird pains and swelling and a succession of diagnoses to go with them: gout, cellulitis, tendonitis, failure to act my age (71),and so on. But the therapies associated with these (erroneous) diagnoses never helped, naturally.

Now they say I have PA, and I think they’re right: I have all the usual symptoms, which makes it a little frustrating that they didn’t figure it out before. Water under the dam.

I have a lot of pain now, swelling, fatigue, etc. It’s hard for me, because I have always kept myself sane by DOING things. My hands won’t let me build and make things; my feet and knees won’t let me hike, and so on.

My rheumatologist put me on mtx (pills). It didn’t seem to do much, and I was losing a couple of days a week to nausea. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be on a smaller dose of mtx and on Enbril along with it. I hope it helps, My doctors say they won’t let me do physical therapy until they get the inflammation, which they say is pretty intense, under control. Meanwhile I’m contenting myself with Bobby Homemaker stuff, but I’ve got my eye on the rototiller, and I still hope to put a new sill under the sheep barn.

That’s the story so far. I sure hope the stuff works. I have things to do.

1 Like
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Hi Kutya! I removed the redundant post from the general discussion. Welcome to the group! It sounds as though you’re making nice progress in getting well medicated. It all takes time, but you’ll get there.

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Hi Kutya,

And Welcome! Quite a lot of people will understand exactly where you are coming from. When “doing things” has been your way of both enjoying life, and coping, for so long, to find there are suddenly many things you can’t do, feels like a great loss.

It’s great to hear you are well started on your medication journey, and hopefully that will be successful for you soon (Enbrel worked wonders for me, with the first signs of improvement within a week).

In the meantime, if you can bring yourself to go to a counselor (though I realise it may not feel natural for your generation at first), most people find that helpful, even if just to remind yourself what things you are doing, despite a pretty sneaky and sometimes nasty disease. If you can find someone who deals with people with chronic pain / fatigue, they may be able to help with strategies for pacing too, which allows me to get more done.

I was always a planner - now on bad /average days I plan projects and get ready for them, and when a good day arrives then I will try to get them done.

Hope Enbrel gives you good results like it did me!

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Heh! I’m a pretty obsessive planner as well - 30 years of teaching: winging it was never an option with a roomful of young people awaiting! I have been doing a lot of drawing up of plans, making materials lists and so on. I hope to begin work soon on a basement workshop, joints willing. I restore vintage sewing machines as a hobby, and I have been able to do some of that, though my fingers give me trouble. I also teach a little adult ed (writing) and plan for that. The pain and fatigue, though, do get me down, make it hard to get “lost” in tasks, sedentary or otherwise. I am very stubborn, though, so I’ll give the d----d disease a run for it.

I have seen a counselor weekly for many years: don’t know what I’d do without her.

Thank you for responding to my post.

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LOVE YOUR ATTITUDE! I hope Enbrel works as well for you as it does me! It’s great your doctor is going the right direction as far as treatment goes…hopefully, you’ll feel better soon!

Keep smiling!

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@Kutya Welcome. I love that one of your diagnoses is “failure to act your age (71).” As another 71 year old, I say, you, go, guy!

I also could not tolerate oral methotrexate. It finally occurred to my rheumatologist that, yes, I could inject it. It’s easier than it sounds especially with an ultra-fine needle made for insulin. You’ll probably continue mtx even with a biologic. That is what my rheumatologist is planning for me.

I’m glad you’re finally on the right track with a diagnosis. It took them decades with me. It’s so hard for them to diagnose PsA.