Hello everyone,
So, I had an overwhelming week. My main area of problem is my SI joint and my lower back and lately I was having those excruciating pains under my feet and around my ankles, also I was getting this weird pains around my wrists - no swelling. On Tuesday, I had an appointment with my thesis advisor, whose mom also has autoimmune arthritis (as a matter of fact, AS), and when I told her my right foot felt like wood and didn't seem to be functioning, she urged me to go straight to my rheumy's office and demand that he sees me. I was confused and scared, but I did what she said. God, I didn't even have my file with me. After waiting for hours (naturally), he made a detailed physical examination and asked for a bloodwork. It was already 5 pm, so the next day I gave my blood for the tests and got the results in the same day.
Long story short, this is the result of my bloodwork, physical examination, and 2 reevaluated MRI scans from May last year and this February: since I still don't have a diagnosis of psoriasis, he decided to rule out PsA for the time being, but told me that I most definitely had Ankylosing Spondylitis - though I would basically have the same symptoms (for the spondylitis kind) and treatment if it was PsA, since they are in the same group of autoimmune arthritis. Oh, and lately I found out that apparently AS runs in the women of the family, the story goes as back to my grandmother's mother and aunt! - although I don't have the HLA whatever gene. He also told me that I had absolutely nothing to worry about, with my disease's progression rate, and if I exercise religiously and use my meds correctly, it could take decades before it begins seriously affecting my spine - the fusion etc. I was lucky because in the past doctors would wait for the damage to be seen on X-rays, which would be pretty late.
And he thought the pain in my feet was due to fibro, not arthritis - apparently fibro can make limbs and joints swollen as well. And feet pain or not, I definitely had fibro so I needed to be treated for it also (he did the fibro test in all 3 of our appointments and I cried in every one of them). I had rejected the fibro treatment the last two times, but this time I thought what the hell, if it makes the pain go away, it makes the pain go away. If it doesn't, then I'll know what's what. So he gave me muscle relaxers and a mild antidepressant to make me sleep (since I never go into the deep sleep state, I wake up every half hour) and I used it last night. Weirdly, this combo, along with my antiinflammatory, seems to be working. The overall swelling of my feet is gone. How a muscle relaxer can do that, I don't know. Although, the prospectus states that the medicine is also used for tendonitis, enthesitis and other muscle inflammations. So maybe I had some inflammation after all. My wrist pain, pain in my left foot and right knee are gone. My right foot is still hurting and the ball feels a little swollen, but I'll give it a couple more days. I used topicals, massaged and wrapped it, it began feeling much better in the last hour. I almost feel like a human being again.
So... that's the result of my last rheumy appointment. I'm both confused and weirdly relieved about the AS diagnosis though... The thought "I think this is AS" kept bugging me for months now. But now I don't know if I still belong here and I'm kinda sad about it, I got used to so many people here and felt really supported!
That was another relief, since I got so used to you