Welcome Kid! The first thing we tell Newbies to PsA is to fire DR. Google (sort of) The more you read the more concerning it becomes and FEAR is not a good thing. Our Mantra here is pretty simple:
FEAR THE DISEASE, NOT THE TREATMENT
I am experienced with both SSZ (Sulfasalazine) and MTX (Methotrexate) LOVE MTX (even when it doesn’t love me) and wouldn’t be without it. Every time I have a MTX Hangover (which is rare)and is just like the real thing, It takes me minutes to remember what it was like before. Most of us (by a long shot) do really well with it IF we take injections not pills, Drink large volumes of water (only water) and keep up on our RX folic acid.
That being said depending on where you live and your insurance you may be on “Step Therapy” where you have to try one or two cheap meds before you get approved for the “good stuff” and fail or at least fail the ACR-20 protocol (20% improvement in some specific markers) even though it helps. (the DMARDs are dirts cheap $50 -$100/ month where as the biologics cost $4,000 - $25,000/month so the step therapy makes sense. IF you are involved in step therapy (ask your doc) I would ask him to consider starting you on SSZ. It is the least likely to help and pretty likely to get you going (literally) on both ends. You can fail this one pretty quickly The quicker you “fail” a med the quicker you can move through the “gap” (read about the Gap here )and get to the good stuff.
Again welcome!!
TJ