psoriatic arthritis

[Bugsy]

I was wondering if anyone has or knows anything about psoriatic arthritis. I was diagnosis with severe ulcerative colitis in 91. I had my large intestine and rectum removed. I have done very well until I had a head to toe outbreak of gutate psoriasis in 04. With injections of enbrel it cleared up. I had a second severe out break in 07. Shocking to my Dr. the psoriais cleared up again with enbrel. She said she ahs never seenit completly clear up twice. During this second time I told the dermatologist how good I feel on the enbrel. I am usually stiff and achy. She explained the connection between body pain and psoriasis and why the enbrel helped.

Well, I have been off of the enbrel for a few months and my body/joint pain, stiffness, (especially in my lower back, hips, shoulder and knees) are worse then ever. I am making an appoinment with a rheumatologist, but was wondering about anybody's personal experience.

I am keeping a big weight lose off and have been very committed to exercising. I am hoping that maybe I can learn knew ways to exercise. Without staying exercise focused I fear I will put the weight back on quickly.

thanks for any info,
bugsy's mom

 

[flutterbee]

Here's a link to a website specifically for these issues:

http://www.spondylitis.org/

Psoriatic Arthritis is considered to be in the same class as the spondy's (short for spondyloarthropathy). There also seems to be a correlation between ulcerative colitis (and other Irritable Bowel Diseases) and the spondy's.

That website also has a message board with tons of information and people willing to share.

 

[dreamer]

I was diagnosis'ed with psoriatic ar thritis several years ago- but eventually my diagnosis changed and added in RA, and I had a previous long standing diagnosis of Lupus.
Once I began methotrexate, the psoriasis part has mostly been manageable, and I am also on Humira and prednisone and have been for over 2 years.
Anotehr website I go to on occasion is a yahoo group- I believe I recently posted an url for there to timerlady?
You can also PM me, anytime.....

 

[DammitJanet]

I have a friend who is part of a set of twins who both have this. With the inbrel or humera they have both done fairly well. They still have pain but it is much more manageable.

 

[gcvmom]

There has been research that has shown a genetic link between psoraisis and a number of autoimmune diseases, including Crohn's (which my difficult child 1 has), Type 1 diabetes, Lupus, RA, and MS. That is probably the reason why many drugs developed for diseases like RA and Lupus are also effective in treating IBD (Methotrexate, Remicaid, Humira, to name a few). I don't know about the colitis connection, but perhaps it's in there too.

More and more, doctors and researchers are finding that they need to pay attention to the work being done in these other autoimmune diseases because it may some day lead to a cure in their own field of study.

 

[susiestar]

I have atypical psoriatic arthritis. Enbrel and humira and methotrexate and the other medications do very little for either problem for me. Exercise helps, when I can. But i have fibro also, and it interferes.

I don't have any answers, esp as mine is apparently very atypical. Both the psoriasis part and the arthritis part. They think the fibro is largely lack of vitamin D. I recommend having all the vitamin levels checked, and if you need to stay on enbrel, then stay on it. Just because the psoriasis clear up doesn't mean the arthritis part doesn't still need the enbrel.

Hugs,

 

[Marguerite]

I don't know a lot about it, but I do remember seeing the TV series "The Singing Detective" by Dennis Potter. It was autobiographical about Potter's experience with psoriasis (including the arthritis as well as other nasty problems). The TV series starred Michael Gambon, who took over the role of Dumbledore in "Harry Potter" (no relation) after the death of Richard Harris.

"The Singing Detective" was very surreal with odd musical interludes. The main character, a writer of detective fiction, was hospitalised with a combination of fever, infection, severe inflammation/psoriasis and arthritis and unable to care for himself at all. He kept hallucinating in ways which had various people in the hospital break into song (usually well-known songs from the hit parade of the 1930s, the period in which his detective stories were set) with the characters miming to the songs and doing a combined song/dance act. A group of surgeons dancing to "Dem Bones" was amusing.

In between, we saw the detective story (starring the main character, now perfectly well) being played out.

Dennis Potter's style (especially "Singing Detective") has been copied/spoofed by a number of TV shows over the years, including "Chicago Hope" where the musical episode revolved around one of the doctors hallucinating because he had a brain tumour - and the visiting neurosurgeon who was removing the tumour was a Dr Denise Potter. That's one for the trivia buffs.

So if this is the official diagnosis for you, then you're in fascinating company. You might be able to still get the series on DVD.

Marg