Psoriatic Arthritis is one of those illnesses you hope to avoid. Most people know about psoriasis – a skin condition that runs the gamete from mild to extreme. A small percentage of people suffering from psoriasis develop psoriatic arthritis. That is what has happened to me.
Psoriatic arthritis can develop at any time. On average, it appears about 10 years after the first signs of psoriasis. For most people it appears between the ages of 30 and 50. It affects men and women equally. In about one of seven people with psoriatic arthritis, arthritis symptoms occur before any skin lesions.Like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis is thought to be caused by a malfunctioning immune system. Psoriatic arthritis is usually milder than rheumatoid arthritis, but some patients with psoriatic arthritis have as severe a disease as patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Psoriatic arthritis can start slowly with mild symptoms, or it can develop quickly. It is very important to have as early and accurate a diagnosis as possible. Left untreated, psoriatic arthritis can be a progressively disabling disease. In fact, half of those with psoriatic arthritis already have bone loss by the time the disease is diagnosed.
There are worse illnesses you can get, but this one leaves a lot to be desired. Before I was diagnosed, I ended up in the emergency room twice last year. I couldn’t get out of bed by myself. The swelling I receive is normally in my hands and feet, but tests have also shown some degeneration of my spine. Put all together it hurts like, well, hell comes to mind. The treatment I’m on now consists of one injection a week of something called a biological response modifier. The plan is to fight the PA into some kind of remission. There is no cure, but the good news is that the medicines being developed are getting better all the time.
I’ve been meaning to write about this for several weeks, but my medicine was delayed in January and I felt pretty awful. Writing more than short posts was out of the question. Now I’m starting to feel a bit better. If you ever get the opportunity to support efforts to fight arthritis please do so. I used to think arthritis was something that slowed old people down on shopping trips. Now it slows me down on bad days when I’m trying to walk down stairs.
Learn more on Psoriatic Arthritis by clicking here. There is a online support group you can visit here. Finally, you can visit the Arthritis Foundation and help them out.
