My Psoriases Story/Experiences and potential PsA so far

I have plaque psoriases and recently, guttate psoriases on probably 20 to 25% of my body. Just one year ago I barely had a small amount of plaque psoriases on my legs. I've heard of flare ups, but mine seems to have lasted for one constant year, I don't understand it. In any case, I also developed joint pain in my fingers, knees, ankles, toes, feet and miscellaneous muscular pain in different parts of my leg, like under the right butt and thigh above the knee. My dermatologist today gave me a bunch of creams to use and phototherapy for three months, so I'm hoping this will take care of the lesions. It has moved onto my back, arms, legs, feet under the bottom of my fingernails, no pitting or splits yet, but the edges of my fingers around the bails are peeling skin and painful if I rub up against something. I don't know the right terminology to use for it. It's a very consuming disease, it consumes much of my thoughts, activities and day. The pain and emotional aspect of it caused me to miss over a month of work recently. Then, doing research about my disease and learning I may have PsA is quite scary. My Dermatologist believes it's what I have based on the symptoms, my age (41) and my psoriases on my body. She tried to make me feel better by saying my case was considering, "mild to moderate", but looking at myself in a mirror without clothes, even I have to laugh at that. I do sit down and work for a living, work in customer service, so in my case, it actually has been beneficial, as the type of arthritic pain I've been in is lessened when I sit. However, I am overweight, have been most of my life, I did a 360 degree change on my diet 30+ days ago and have lost 30 pounts. I'd say I'm at around 300 to 320 pounts, so I'm a teddy bear. I smoked cigarettes for 24 years, I quit back in November of 2017, I no longer eat most junk foods, no more breads or pastas, I've mostly been on a light seafood, lots of greens, veggies, fruits, admittingly, something I almost never did for most of my life. I ate a lot of processed food (Frozen chicken patties as an example), would eat a lot of pizza from Dominos or drink lots of Diet Pop and chips and other garbage. Looking back at how I lived, I can't believe the slob I was and maybe still am to an extent. I really DO believe that maybe some of what I'm going through is my own fault. Do you believe lifestyle choices can cause the severity of our disease? Is it my fault I am dealing with this or is that just self pity? The psoriases isn't new to me. I've had it approximately 5 years. But then, it was a light amount on the left side of my belly, then started getting, "dry skin" around my ears, scalp about a year later, figured it was just not using good soap or shampoo. EVentually that turned into full fledged scalp psoriases, have it above my ears, eyebrows, most of my arms, most of mid-to lower back region, elbows, forearms, not as much on my upper arms or shoulder area. I've been spared mainly on my upper chest, neck and most of my face region. But now, even those areas are becoming slowly affected by psoriases. I recently had what I believe is a strep infection recently. I saw two doctors that said what rash that was on my right arm was nothing but contact dermatitis (first one said), then second one said it was strep infection ON my arm. My dermatologist today confirmed it was Guttate. It covers about my mid-forearm up to my wrist on my right arm. Was mad itchy and inflamed the first 2-3 days. I used anti-bacterial presciption cream and it's kept the itch at bay completely. One thing I've learned is if you have issues on your skin, SEE a dermatologist, our conditions can mimic so many other skin conditions that most doctors will brush it off as something else. I know this all over the map, I'm just scared, hopeful, not hopeful, positive, yet negative. I'm a roller coaster of emotions. I see my Rhumetologist for the first time in a month. Until then, it's things like Betaderm, other creams. Dovobet was a godsend about a year ago. It cleared up ALL of my leg psoriases and most every where else. Then it came back with a vengeance and of course, Dovobet lost its effectiveness and no longer does anything for me. I've opted to steer clear of Metho and the other medicines for now. I want to talk to the Rhumetologist first, get a clinical diagnosis, see how my other therapies are going. I'll find what works for me. But, I remain positive on some fronts because I've made sweeping life style changes, so in some cases, I feel good, mainly my digestive system is happy with me, just my skin and joints are angry with me. I wish every one pain free and psoriases free. We can experience brief or long remissions, may all of us experience as many as we can. Thanks for listening to my rambling story. ---- If anyone wants to share their story, experiences with me, I'll more than be happy to read any and all responses. Know that you are not alone in this disease and diseases in some cases. Any tips on triggers, things to try, admittingly I let the psoriases get too far out of hand before I requested to see a Dermatologist. When they were just mainly on my legs and didn't itch, burn, crack or hurt much and didn't have joint pain, I ignored it. A mistake I regret, but this disease isn't easy to understand until you do research, educate yourself. I'm getting help for my symptoms, I've changed my diet dramatically, I've altered things in my life, I'm still working, I can still walk (with pain), so this is just the beginning of a long road, but the emotional/mental aspect of my disease... it's very overwhelming. I was married for 11 years and now I live alone. I don't drink, I don't smoke ciggs anymore, so my, "going out" social circle is much smaller than it once was. I find talking to people that don't know what my (our) disease is, it's hard for them to relate to what I'm saying, so it's probably best I find a forum to let out my words, my thoughts, my progression. I know this isn't necessarily a support group, but if I can reach out to anyone and make them smile, I'm all for it. A statistic I didn't know was that around 25-30% of individuals who have psoriases will eventually develop psoriatic arthritis. I didn't realize the scope and size of these numbers. It's wild. Anyway, Thanks for listening. Troy (41 years old, 5 years Psoriases, suspected Psoriatic Arthritis)