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Psoriatic Arthritis: How do you manage PA and flares?
I am a 74 year old female who has had psoriasis for over 40 years. The psoriasis was present on my scalp and ears in flares from time to time. I never experienced joint swelling and joint pain until recently. About one month ago I experienced an abrupt onset of severe joint swelling in my hands wrists, feet, and neck with severe pain. At first I suspected that it might have been related to my oncology medication, Arimedex that I began taking approximately 4 months before my sudden joint problems began. Testing ruled out Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. My oncologist did not think that the joint issues could be related to the Arimedex, however, he recommended that I suspend taking the cancer medication for 4 weeks while I was given oral Prednisone for 23 days (referred to as Pulse and taper). I am on day 22 of the Prednisone and the joint swelling and pain is no longer present. My oncologist wants me to resume the Arimedex, however, I am afraid that the severe joint pain will return. I am hopeful that additional diagnostic testing will determine the underlying cause of my joint swelling. If anyone reading this has had similar problems or any information related to my situation I would be interested in your comments. Thank you.
lemdjm
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Hello @fransav. I merged your post about Psoriatic Arthritis in to an existing conversation about PSA. I did this so you could meet a few of the other members talking about PSA that may be able to comment on some of the experiences you have had.
@fransav, I see that you had posted a picture in your discussion, were you trying to upload that picture as your profile picture?
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1 ReactionMy reply is simple. I have had psoriatic arthritis and other types for about 70 years. I have multiple forms of arthritis, cancers, amyloidosis, tumors, etc. All my systems seem to be dropping out.. urinary, circulatory, cardiac, pulmonary, etc. One simple piece of advice for everyone over age 60. Have two simple tests done: (1) Serum FreeLightChain, paid for by Medicare. Any positive reading of any level indicates a possible serious problem with protein mid-folding, and anything above 20 mg/Liter should be considered by a top lab, such as Mayo, B&W, Sloan-K, Stanford. (2) 24-hour urine collection and assay. ANY positive response indicates the kidney is not doing its second job, filtering out wrongly placed protein pieces. My sFLC runs about 300mg/liter, or about 1.5 grams per day. This protein lives only about 2 hours (half-life) before dying and being deposited in some body tissue where it raises hell. At the same time, about the same amount of mis-folded protein is spewed out in our urine (1.5G in my case). This makes an easy marker for a quick semi-accurate dX. Have your doc order both the sFLC and th 24hr collection/assay. They are cheap (free on Medicare), easy (blood draw and urine collection), and probably the quickest indication of very serious problems. I think everyone should have them done about every ten years from age 50.
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2 Reactionsi do understand your pain and frustration. there are times i must use boots on both feet at the same time so i may walk (in pain) using a wheelchair in in between. and wrist braces. yet, still i laugh and sing. sometimes it helps. am 80 years of age and am wondering, would marajuanna help?????
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1 Reactioncorrect. it is all in the MONEY.
sorry to say i have the same situation. perhaps there is not enough experimentation to help this medical condition because there is such a small percentage of people that would benefit to purchase the created medication. and therefore there is not enough money to be made for all the time involved to create it. as a small example, i have both psoriatic and rheumatoid arthritis plus sjogrens, and diabetis, hypothyroidism, stage 3 kidney, high blood pressure irregular heart beat, veins, macular degeneration and gloucoma etc., etc. i am a walking pill. HOWEVER, I AM AN 80 YEAR OLD WOMAN AND WHEN I AM OUT OF THE BOOTS I GO DANCING SATURDAY NIGHTS. WHICH IS A RARITY. STILL NEED SOME SORT OF MEDICINE FOR RELIEF OF THE PAIN BUT NOT CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. THINK I SHOULD BUY STOCK IN ADVIL.
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2 Reactionsterrible pain and cannot use aspirin (advil) due to kidney disease. tylenol does nothing, zero, zero, zero. wonder who holds stock in this medicine. makes a person want to move to a state that permits legal suicide. but no, I WANT TO LIVE. HOWEVER, IT GETS HARDER AND HARDER. SO, TO HAVE A BETTER QUALITY TO LIFE: I USE ADVIL. (will not use controlled substances. 80 year old woman) do you think marajuanna will help?
Hello @peach414144,
You will notice I moved your message to this discussion so as to bring similar conversations together, and so that you can meet other Connect members talking about psoriatic arthritis.
I'd also encourage you to view this discussion: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) - Introduce yourself and meet others: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/rheumatoid-arthritis-ra-introduce-yourself-and-meet-others/
Meanwhile, I'm tagging @kozlo52 @blindeyepug @barneythe2nd @nanke99 @vickiekay @tbeckys @iman_im @lisa_sj99 @1825 @callyrae @jewel8888 @boomerexpert, and hope they will join this conversion with their insights to help you find some relief.
On Mayo Clinic Connect, we have an active discussion on marijuana and pain relief, which you may wish to view:
CBD: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/cbd/
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1 Reactioni am in the same state of health. the conclusion i have come to is: learn the language of the countries that have the free health care systems and move there. why we here in america cannot have the same care? no wonder some of these countries laugh at us. what a world. i have wonderful health coverage and am not wealthy and am still treated badly. still i think quite a large percentage of doctors today are in it only for the money. i have had a few tell me so. bad attitudes! this country has changed in many ways.
yes. i have many, many health problems including rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis. tylenol does NOTHING for pain. advil works but cannot take it because of the kidneys. sooooo, i take the advil and will die sooner, hopefully before i go blind because of the many health problems. so there you go, either quality or quantity of life. enjoy what you can while you can. (perhaps we can go back in time and start a commune to assist each other emotionally.)
Not all of us have the money to move to another country, believe me, I would if able and could afford,. I can not even hold silverware anymore, dry sandwiches suck, and husband is also disabled. Psoriatic arthritis is not my only issue, I am going to go blind unless they find a new med because what this has done to my eyes, o can not take most drugs because I have skin cancer, check your facts before you tell everyone to move unless you are willing to pay for us no-income (because we can't anymore) to move, then I'm on board.