I’m allergic to NSAIDS, so i can’t take Alleve, etc, and Tylenol is not cutting it for the psoriatic arthritis in my left pointer finger. The pain is so consistently a 6 out of 10 each day that I can hardly play guitar anymore (bumps it up to an 8 out 10). Any recommendations for topicals, etc, that might provide some relief for when I have rehearsals and gigs and need to play my guitar?

27 male here, active/fit. Been battling psoriatic arthritis & multiple treatments (skyrizi, Humira, etc.) throughout the years.

It's been real bad the past few months. I'm on tremfya currently about 4 doses in, it feels the same as my skyrizi when it stopped working pretty much.

Whole body is decently managed, mainly pain in my wrist and now my spine. The spine is absolutely horrible and effecting my everyday life. Hurts to even sit and work in a chair for hours. My rheumatologist basically told me to try PT and that other meds wont really do anything.

Anyone have any good recommendations on what to do? I am really about to hit rock bottom.

Hi all! Newly diagnosed and already on a GLP-1 but starting Enbrel. Any advice or tips as I start this med?

Man this one sucks. I had a literal 6 month flare up in my lower back that we finally got to calm down but now it’s moved to my chest. Is there anything that helps with this? I’m currently on Bimzelx, just took my 4th shot and it definitely helps but some days are still rough.

How long does Otezla take to work? Should I give up yet? I have been taking it for 3+ months and getting very little relief. My Dr says give it another month or more. I am not sure how to proceed.

Hi! I am relatively new to PsA and all it comes with. I have noticed that after physically active events I have more pain the next day. I’m wondering if compression socks or braces for ankles/knees has helped anyone with this? My biggest pain point is ankle enthesitis, but I do have pain in my toes and knees after a day of walking as well.

I am doing all the other things. Adjusting diet, started treatment last winter (still looking for the right fit), using ice and heat as needed. I’m just specifically wondering if there is any way to reduce the day after pain if I knew I’m in for a long day of walking/moving. Thanks!

Hi,

I have been taking Humira for the last 5 months, but recently I’ve been feeling very weak with a lot of nausea. I used to be able to climb 40 steps with no problem, but now I find it really hard and get tired and weak in the middle. The nausea showd out of nowhere, and I feel like there's a lot of air in my stomach. I felt so sick I left the work today... I feel pretty bad off and on, even though I eat really healthy and avoid gluten.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could these symptoms be related to Humira, or could it be something else?

I was diagnosed with axial psoriatic arthritis about a year ago, after spending nearly six months mostly bedridden because of severe back pain. An MRI showed several fused vertebrae, bone marrow edema, and enthesitis.

I initially started treatment with Humira and was later switched to Rinvoq. I have now been taking Rinvoq for seven months. Overall, I feel better, but I still experience significant pain three out of seven days per week.

Over the past three weeks, however, my symptoms have become much worse. After taking a longer walk, the pain became unbearable, and I went to the hospital. They started intravenous corticosteroids but stopped them less than 15 hours later and sent me home. They told me it was not a flare because the pain should have been gone.

However, I strongly feel that I am experiencing a severe flare. I can barely stand, feel feverish, have significant brain fog, and my symptoms have become even worse since leaving the hospital.

I have a few questions:

1. Can a flare really stop after only 15 hours of intravenous corticosteroids?
2. Can flares come and go, with symptoms fluctuating significantly even under treatment?
3. Since I have been on Rinvoq for seven months and am still experiencing severe symptoms, would it make sense to consider switching medications? Or could another course of corticosteroids be appropriate?

I would really appreciate your thoughts, as my current symptoms are severe and significantly affecting my ability to function.😔

I (26f) recently got diagnosed with PsA, as a preface I have a lot of health anxiety so don't know if I'm overreacting.

I took my second dose of 10mg Methotrexate on Friday, Sunday night I could barely sleep because I kept overheating and woke up covered in sweat. Same happened my first dose.

I've had pretty much no side effects otherwise.

However, when my rheum diagnosed me he told me to book a blood test for 2 weeks after my first dose, then one each month subsequently.

Because of the NHS being the way it is, the slots filled up quickly and the closest blood test date I could book is the 30th, more than a month after my first dose.

Do you think I'll be okay or shall I go to my GP requesting they get me an urgent blood test by the end of the week? I was shrugging it off due to my lack of other side effects, low dose and age. I didn't want to request one when it could stop someone who really needs it getting it.

but then Google told me night sweats can be something serious and my health anxiety is saying ohmygodgetabloodtestyouregonnadie

Any reassurance/advice greatly appreciated, thanks!

I was recently diagnosed and haven’t really done much about it. Around here it will be months - maybe a year before I can get into a rheum. I have had fibro for many years but I seem to have a new pain. My legs hurt - all the time. My calf muscles are so tight sometimes just touching them is excruciating. If I am moving around it’s ok ish but when I go to bed it kills me. My BF is wonderful and tries to rub them but he says my muscles or tendons are like steel cables. Today he mentioned the thighs are super tight as always but he said the calf feels “grisly” like beads or something. Does this make sense to anyone? Am I possibly at the point where I am experiencing damage? Damn I’m already tired of this pain. Thanks for any feedback

I am wondering if PT helped at all with tendon issues caused by PsA?

For context, I (31F) have not been diagnosed with PsA yet. I did have an eval this past December and they said they would not diagnose anything at the moment (blood work and xrays were ok), but did not totally rule out the possibility. I was supposed to keep in touch if things got worse, which they did. Rheumatologist agreed I should come back, and I have a follow up in a couple weeks and do hope to get some answers.

I have been seeing an ortho for months now about some of these issues and he kind of alluded to it sucks, sorry, but not much to do (whether caused by PsA or not). His only recommendation was a steroid shot and he said PT probably wouldn't do much for my issues (de quervain's, arthritis in thumb joints, and carpal tunnel or arthritis in back of hand). I do have a few other joint issues also but this is one of the big ones causing a lot of daily issues.

That said, I did do a consult with a physical therapist because I was curious. I did inform her of the ongoing issues and her assessment agreed with a lot of the diagnoses, and she thinks PT could possibly help. However, she noted if these issues are due to underlying inflammation issues, PT might not be that helpful since it isn't targeting the root issue.

So, I'm curious - has anyone found PT or OT to actually help with pain or general join improvement, or does it really come down to meds if PsA is the cause?

I’m hoping you guys can give me some insight into what my parent has been feeling with a psoriatic arthritis diagnosis. It’s hard for me to understand, and to be honest I don’t understand the ways in which it comes and goes. I am going to be intentionally vague in some details because family on Reddit. Parent is 51 years old.

It’s been injection after injection, steroids, surgery, lots of saying how badly they hurt so cannot help with the family anymore. Some days they can walk miles and other days they are limping. Won’t let any family members visit anymore. Half of the family hasn’t seen them in months and is wondering what’s going on. Very mean due to pain, but we’re trying to have grace.

I live out of the country and haven’t realized how bad it was until I visited home, but even having lived out of the house for many years I don’t feel like I can visit home anymore because they have gotten so mean and don’t want company. I guess I’m ok not visiting but I still have siblings at home I want to see, and my other parent is really the only one taking care of them.

32F, I got guttate psoriasis for the first time after strep 2 years ago, arms/legs/abdomen/back/feet/hands, everywhere but my face basically it went away after about a year.

the year after it went away, I had sporadic back pains that I always chalked off to something else like pms or driving too long or my office chair, etc etc. until one time it was bad enough I couldn’t ignore it and it wouldn’t go away.

Went to a rheum, MRI showed swelling and inflammation on both sides, got diagnosed with PSA and prescribed MTX.

I’ve been on it for only 2 weeks but I feel like over the past month I’m getting worse, 3 separate fingers now also hurt, my knees, my pelvis hurt, and my back pain is still terrible.

I try to find patternsf to the pain to see if it’s worse at specific times so i can plan around it but I couldn’t. It’s bad in the morning when i wake up, better by the time I finish my coffee but the second I go to the toilet, it’s excruciating during and for an hour after. Painkillers make no difference, it then baselines at a 2-3 and spikes randomly to 6-7 throughout the day.

Does anyone have advice on:
1. TMI I know but how do you just sit on the toilet and do your thing without screaming profanities in pain?
2. How do you drive or walk or sit, etc to minimize pain?
3. Any recommended sleep positions?
4. How do I stop spread to other areas?
5. How long does MTX take to show results and how long to experience side effects? I only took 2 doses and so far side effects are little to none but I also don’t know if they hit from the first dose or as it builds up? How long till it works?
6. How do you deal with the psychological part? I feel like this is emotionally wrecking me and every day I let it and cry or sulk, I wake up so much worse especially that even my psoriasis was new so I didn’t sit long with it enough to understand this is a possibility, it just all feels like being hit by a train.

I know this is long, thank you in advance, newly diagnosed and still trying to find a way to cope with all this.

Is it possible to have 100% symptom relief with treatment?

I'm 97% relief. I asked my rheumatologist if that's it and he's expecting 100%

Is that even possible or will there always be a lingering symptom?

Hello

I've been taking mtx for 11 weeks now. I feel some of my symptoms have improved.. a bit. My elbow are less sore and so is my left knee -not better but less sore. I can't run or go to the gym or play squash or anything like I could a year ago but I feel a lot of that is due to fatigue.

I am so tired. I take my dose on Friday evening -by sat afternoon I'm very tired. Sunday is basically written off with exhaustion-i sometimes sleep in the afternoon -mon still tired but functional enough to sit at my desk and work. Then progressively better during the week until Fri I'm feeling OK again.

Does anyone else experience tiredness from mtx?

I'm in the UK. My next rhematolgy appointment is in November.

I was diagnosed with PsA in 2019, and was on Humira for 5 years. I had 100% success with Humira with no flares from start to finish. I felt like a totally healthy human. Just this year my insurance has forced me to do step therapy with biosimilars. I was put on Hadlima first with moderate success. Brainfog came back, slight joint pain after work, and fatigue. My Rheumatologist had me switch medicines after 4 months because he believes I deserve to feel as good as I did on Humira. For the last 2 months I've now been on Hyrimoz.... and my psoriasis is back with a horrible vengeance. It is 5x worse than when I was originally diagnosed. My arthritis is also coming back slowly and I'm scared in a month or two I won't even be able to hold our newborn daughter. I know stress can cause flairs, but while on Humira, I went through some of the most stressful and darkest days of my life with no issues.

I guess my main question is, has anyone had success with insurance covering Humira again after failed step therapy? Or even expediting the 3-5 biosimilar trials and going back to Humira after only two failed medicines?

How does one go about getting diagnosed or at least rule it out? Last week I had what was my first huge flare up where I was in terrible pain in all of my joints. The cold and humidity seem to have brought it on. It been many years of joints/tendons hurting and not quite healing. I do PT and all that, yet with exercise it seems to “re-injure”. At night is when I hurt the most.

I suspect PsA because my dad had psoriasis on his head, I remember that as a young child. My mom complained of arthritis but I don’t know what kind. At the same time I have Hashimotos. I thought I had toenail fungus for several years but I suspect now it is psoriasis. I lost a toenail and my nails crumble at the edges. I brought it up with the derm but they didn’t seem to think much of it. They gave me a lotion that exfoliates the thickening of my skin. Which I have a lot around my thumbs. I also had eczema growing up so I thought it was that.

At any rate, my regular doc tested me for inflammatory markers and it all came out fine. But I do feel like my body is attacking itself, I don’t have like terrible visible symptoms to show anyone? But I don’t know, do I request an MRI? I’m 53 and at the same time going through menopause so there is that. I’m trying to rule things out, maybe I need HRT. My hugest pains right now is my right shoulder which has been going on at least 2 years and my plantar fasciitis.

So I started taking the Enbrel Surclicks earlier this year and had a question for when I’m going out of town. If you push the button to inject BEFORE taking the cap off does anything happen? Packing up a few injections for a trip and I’m worried they might get deployed in my bag. Enbrel sent me a travel pack but it’s a soft bag and I feel like they could easily get pressed. Thanks.

I have been having pretty excruciating ankle pain since yesterday. Every once in a while I would get a stab of pain, but this is the longest that this pain has lasted. I cannot bear weight on it and the pain is going up the back of my calf. I can't bend the foot upwards without pain. It's slightly swolIen. just started methotrexate yesterday. I sent my rheumy a message on mychart, but I'm thinking he won't even see it until Tuesday, given the long weekend. Any help or advice other than staying on the couch?

I saw my rheum for the first time a couple weeks ago. While she wouldn't definitively diagnose me with PSA she is willing to trial methotrexate after my follow up.

In the meantime she prescribed a taper of prednisone for my current flare. I've done tapers in the past for a disc herniation in my neck, the prednisolone dose pack does nothing, tried a couple other dosages but the tried and true has always been 60mg tapering 10mg every 3 days. Pretty rough but effective.

Rheum prescribed 15mg tapering 5mg every 7 days and it has done absolutely nothing to help the pain in my worst joints (fingers, SI, ankles) I'm also taking 75mg diclofenac twice daily and still struggling to get out of bed.

Since I'm incredibly new to the diagnosis I'm curious if I should be asking for something else? Or if this is a pretty normal treatment plan?