Thanks for welcoming me into your community!

First and foremost thank you all or welcoming me into this group! I’m excited to have found you all. I have a couple of questions that I was searching for info on and stumbled across this website:
My first question is about CRP. My C reactive proteins have been super high lately, but does anyone have any idea how high they usually run in patients with psa? I have been feeling terribly run down lately and feel as if things have started to get worse for me but I know a lot of that has to do with my stress level.
I also have been having trouble breathing on occasions and the docs put me on steroids and it goes away for a few months before returning again. But we haven’t found any answers yet so I was curious if anyone else has ever had similar symptoms.
Finally, I take my medical school boards tomorrow and have had a really hard week. Most days I feel like I don’t have enough energy to study, let alone take a 9 hour exam Tom. So i would really appreciate everyone sending some prayers/love/thoughts my way if you think about it.
Thanks so much again for allowing me to join your community! Im so happy to find other people like me!

Dear Cbake,

Surely you have our best wishes, prayers, and love, going forward for you to take your boards.

http://www.flcv.com/inflamhg.html/

I surely do not have your qualifications, but I believe the Doctor can not only look at your Arthritis but also your breathing problems that could be connected. This is surely not a diagnosis, but it may help answer your question, lets see if I can get tntlamb to look at this.

My very best to you, wishing you high marks, and good health!

Hugs,

SK

Welcome!!! Adding you to our prayers! You'll do great!!!

For me, stress has a lot to do with my feeling run down, it increases my pain, etc.

I've had difficulty breathing at times - I have PsA in my chest, and when it flares I don't always notice the pain, but the swelling makes it difficult to breathe.

Oh gosh that makes me feel so much better! Because it really only happens when I’m really hurting and tired so that makes me feel much better! It really is nice to know people who are going through the same things as me. I’ve never met anyone else with Psa before.

Re CRP it’s meant to be under 5 for normal healthy people. Double figures makes my GP twitchy. He nearly had a heart attack when I hit treble figures (my highest has been 101). Even when nothing is inflamed and i feel ok my CSR is about 8 or 9. What is your current CRP score?

Not sure what boards are (exams?) but good luck anyway!

Gwynneth- yes my boards are my national certification exams. I appreciate the luck :slight_smile: I feel like I did well despite my constant desire to sleep. Ha ha. My crp is constantly around 12. As a student I learn that less than 3-4 is usually normal, but I haven’t found any info on what is normal for a psa patient. I guess I just learn quite a bit about the effects of chronic inflammation and I just want to make sure I’m being proactive in my treatment options. I don’t want to sit by and let someone else make decisions. Especially when so many gp’s have very little experience with psoriatic arthritis. I have yet to have one that I haven’t been their first patient. I just was interested in what the standard is. But if you have had them in the 101 range that makes me feel much better. Thank you!

Hi Cbake,

Wow, I'm so impressed you made it through school while dealing with PsA! Way to go!

Stress is a known trigger for both psoriasis and PsA. I have a feeling you already know about stress!

IMHO, you are right about being proactive. Most GPs will not be familiar with the drugs that are most often used to treat PsA.

Absolutely, you have our thoughts and prayers. Best of luck on your boards, and welcome to the group!

Thank you so much to everyone! Now that I am done with my exams I have time to make an appointment with my rheumatologist so that will be my next step!

Hi Cbake,

Good luck with your exams, that is very exciting!

CRP (and ESR) are very variable in PsA patients - one person can have always normal results, while the next will go through the roof during a flare. It is common for an individuals CRP pattern to change over time as well (approx 48% of PsA patients present with normal CRP, but this drops to 33% over time).

It can be used in some individuals to monitor disease activity, as it correlates with it. This is supposed to only work for a small % of people (more common in RA), however if you find you are one of them, it would certainly be useful.

Once your exams are over and you have some time, there is a great website that has a lot of free journal publications that is really worth lokoking at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

(or I just google the search term followed by NIH - that usually works too)

Perhaps you can provide some translations to us lay-people!

I get costochondritis with PsA, which is possibly what you are referring to with the breathing difficulties. There are lots of co-morbidities with PsA (and PsA drugs - MTX for example has rare respiratory side effects), so dont just assume its costochondrtits and make sure you discuss it with your Rhuemy.

Best of luck again. It’s great to think there’ll be at least one doc out there who knows what we are going through! (though I’m sorry you have to)

Thank you so much jenAus! I would love to read those articles. I appreciate that very much. And as for being a doc who understands, I truly hope that’s what My patients read from me. I always pray that my patients will know my compassion!

So how did the boards go? I have a feeling you did great! A doctor who is concerned about demonstrating compassion is certainly on the right path! For what it's worth, my doc told me the best advice he received when he first went into practice came from an old GP who said, "Listen to your patients. Most of the time, they will tell you exactly what's wrong and how to treat it." :-)

I completely agree with that! I won’t know how they went for 4-6 weeks but I feel like they went well! Thanks everyone so much for all the support!