Wow… There seems to be quite the connection with PsA and Crohn’s! And of course Psoriasis. I heard recently that there is now an official DNA and blood registry of PsA and Psoriasis patients available to researchers! This will greatly increase our chances for specifically engineered medicine. Here’s an article I found explaining it: http://www.medindia.net/news/DNA-Samples-for-Psoriasis-Research-73444-1.htm
wow it is great to hear everyone’s stories. It is also great to hear that there is some progress being made in research into to PsA and the genetic links…
Glad to hear you finally have a diagnosis! I hope you find the treatment works for you! good luck!
TIGHEFAN said:
I am like the rest of you I do not have psoriasis but my mom had it severe years ago and the psoriatic arthritis she was not able to walk from it. I have all the joint pain and fatigue I spent 12 years thinking I had fibromyalgia finally have a diagnose of psoriatic arthritis. Last November I started having pain in my right foot and found out that it was a tear in my tendon and wore a boot for 3 and 1/2 months which caused my knees to flare up big time and got to where I could not walk hardly then finally found a wonderful Rhemy who started doing test and diagnosed me. I know how you feel Sam even though you are quite a few years younger it is depressing to think that we have to deal with this being so young.
Thanks, Samc it is kinda of a relief and depressing to know now know what I am dealing with. At least I have diagnosis and can work toward getting better hopefully.
Yes, I felt the same when I was diagnosed a few weeks back: a relief, and at the same time, depressing. But after years of "my feet are sore" and saying "I'm telling you, there is something wrong with me ...", I feel strangely vindicated that, indeed, there is something wrong. For about ten years I maintained that there was something wrong, but my PCP could find nothing to put her finger on, except that I was overweight. We even had a standing joke: if she ordered bloodwork, she'd say "any tests you want to add to this list?" with a good-natured teasing tone.
I'm so grateful to have a really good -- and very empathetic-- rheumy who is conducting the symphony for now. (Canadian Thanksgiving was yesterday, so I'm in "grateful" mode!) And grateful that I'm not crazy (well, not in _that_ way, anyway, LOL)! Nor am I alone, I've got the rest of you... That's huge for me. Thanks.
You're right, Tighefan, when you have a diagnosis, you can start working towards getting better.
Seenie
I do have skin psoriasis, but, over the course of the years I have had this disease, I have read many times about folks who have PsA, but no evidence of psoriasis. The joint involvement can precede skin symptoms sometimes by many years. Also, sometimes psoriasis can be mild. A patient could have a small lesion hiding somewhere (under hair, in a skin fold, etc.) where it wouldn't be found on regular exam. In fact, when I was first diagnosed at Cleveland Clinic, of all places, the first doc who looked at me said I definitely did not have psoriasis. Then the chief of dermatology looked at me, flipped my hair over, and said, yes, you definitely do have psoriasis. :-(
Auto-immune diseases are often co-morbid, meaning once you have one, you are likely to have another. For example, many patients with RA will eventually develop Sjogren's. This could explain the incidence of Crohn's in so many folks with PsA. I'm not suggesting these things are true in every case, but thought I would toss this info into the ring.