Living with Psoriatic Arthritis
in Health ·
Scott Howard74 said:Man, you're pretty young. Did they have to keep you in the hospital while they ran all those tests?
It hit every single joint for me. Started with stiffness and that finger on my right hand, but now my other hand joints are killing me, and my neck is a mess too...
In my case, it actually started with my hip joints first, and once the inflammation set in, it hit a nerve—sciatica—and I practically couldn't walk. Honestly, the doctors didn't even know what was happening to me; for two whole months, they just kept telling me it was standard sciatica. I was in absolute agony. Then, in the middle of all that, one of my finger joints swelled up, and that's when they finally connected the dots that it was a joint issue. They sent me to the hospital for more testing to get a real diagnosis, and it turned out to be psoriatic arthritis. I'm doing okay now, mostly. Sometimes the hip still bothers me, and that finger joint is swollen, so it doesn't work quite at 100%. My immune system is just... a mess. I exercise every day and eat everything, though. Sometimes I forget I even have this, and then other times, when the pain hits, I just get so overwhelmed knowing I'll probably be dealing with this for the rest of my life. I haven't had kids yet, so I don't really know how that will all play out. But did they actually give you a definitive diagnosis?
I'm basically taking medication meant for rheumatoid arthritis, because apparently, there isn't a specific cure for this one. Rheumatology isn't fully understood yet, I guess. At first, they told me it was hereditary, but I had an antigen test done and it didn't show anything at all.🤷