Subject: Re: Psoriatic Arthritis.
Hey Lauren. I had to laugh when you said people say "yeah, I get that sometimes". My fella's uncle is the same - he's 57 and is a builder, he's gonna gt achey knees but he seems to think it's as severe as mine - I had my hips replaced aged 21 and 22, somehow I don't think it's the same lol! As for medication, I have had the whole lot over the years. Mtx worked quite well for me but I was your age and went out on the tiles quite a lot so the inability to drink was off putting. The rheumy put me on sulfasalazine during my party period but it didn't really do a lot for me. I was a real social smoker then too (cos you could smoke in pubs of course) so would chain smoke when out and then not bother the rest of the time - never noticed a flare up as a result of smoking! Although, I would urge you to give up - your body's gonna have a lot of medication over the years - best to be in tip top health I guess... lecture over :-) I've been on ciclosporin and gold injections too. Obviously, years of anti-inflammatories and pain killers too. Some worked better than others but 8 years ago I managed to get anti-tnf (at the time it wasn't licensed for PA so was a bit of a battle getting it). This was just after my 2nd hip replacement and I honestly believe that if they had put me on it earlier I may not have needed to have my hip replaced, it worked that well for me. I went from having to walk with sticks to hiking around the valley of the kings in the egyptian hills only 5 months later!!! However, I fell pregnant in January (planned) and had to stop the anti-tnf. I was practically bed ridden for the 1st 3 months of pregnancy as the PA hit me so badly. I was only allowed to take paracetamol and the rheumy injected the worst affected joints with steroids periodically. Thankfully, as the pregnancy progressed the PA improved. I've had my little boy, Oscar now and was expected to go back on anti-tnf but a monumental spanner hit the works during pregnancy. At 27 weeks pregnant I was diagnosed with breast cancer!!! I am over half way through chemo now and the tumor is now undetectable on scans so the news is all good (thank heavens)! The worst thing though, and people think I have things out of perspective but, having PA I'm sure you'll understand where I'm coming from, I'm not allowed back on the anti-tnf until 10 years after being given the all clear. I was devastated as the drug that works so well for me is no longer available. Even worse news was delivered to me last week - the oncologist won't allow my rheumy to prescribe any disease modifying drugs as he feels that, because I have had chemotherapy and the way that the disease modifiers work on the body, the risk of the cancer returning is too high! If this is the case then I am seriously considering a double mastectomy. I would rather be the woman at the exercise class with no tits then the woman in the wheelchair with the great rack lol As for making changes to your lifestyle to improve the PA, I would say just try to eat healthily, drink, smoke and do anything else "naughty" in moderation but mainly, I would suggest getting a good balance between rest and exercise. Walk as much as you can without overdoing. Listen to your body - they're very good at letting you know when things aren't quite right. All the best hun Lou x
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