Coming to terms with medication

Hi Matt Here is my PsA story. I was diagnosed with PsA in 2018, symptoms were nails separating from nail bed & crooked growth, severe itching, toe swelling with pain. I was on steroids for three months and symptoms disappeared. Treatment didn't moved over to sulfa and I stopped taking medication with symptoms disappearance. 6-8 months passed, I am dealing with the PsA flares and now I am back on to steroids again. I am experiencing the severe arthritic pains and at more points than the first spell - fingers, spine, knee, hip, palm, where only toes showed the signs initially. One month (and ongoing for now) use of same steroid reduced my severe arthritic inflammation to mild to medium. I am about to visit my Doc for the follow up. I am not sure about going onto Sulfasalazine as I remember my childhood experience of being allergic/sensitive to Sulfa compounds . I have to find more on this on my next visit to my Doc. Another interesting matter to share is about naturopath consultation. Their recommendation is avoid/reduce cooking salt usage, increase fruits & vege intake, avoid processed foods, I feel it is making a difference too. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

I was diagnosed with PsA 13 years ago and have been on Sulfasalazine pretty much ever since with no side effects that I have ever noticed. Regular blood tests have all stayed normal throughout. Like the respondent above I monitor my diet very carefully (for some years I kept a food diary which recorded everything I ate and which I cross referenced with symptoms). It turns out that for me Dairy, Alcohol and Citrus were significant triggers. However, in my case diet alone simply doesn't do enough. I had a brief stint (six months) on Methotrexate about two years ago, which was a complete failure - my PsA came back with vengeance after about two months - and went back on Sulfasalazine after about six months. From all I have read and seen different people respond very differently to the various treatments and it takes a while to find out what works for you. With regard to symptoms coming and going, that was certainly true for me - especially at the start. You will read, I am sure, about flare ups and how the severity of symptoms comes and goes for lots of people. At the start (before I was diagnosed) I used to get severe pain in one or two joints at a time (fingers and elbows mainly), which would last a week and then disappear.

I am otwoxxx.. ; Funny this PsA. Therapy is ongoing, but symptoms change from one point to another. Toes swelling gone but one of the finger picked up bulging. (it looks like little willy wonka). Somewhere I read PsA is unpredictable and not well known/well understood. I, male, 82 kilo body weight, lean built, 47Yr; Mxt 15mg tab. once per week + Folic acid 5mg tab everyday (unitl Mxt intake), Etoricoxib tab once daily to relieve from arthritic pains, and Prednisolone tab. daily. This is my medication for now from 6 weeks. I am waiting to see my doc in another week. Thanks

Hi Matt, I've been taking sulphasalazine for about 10 months (+ methotrexate the past 7 months). I had no side effects from sulph except a few initial re-adjustment stomach upsets which soon passed, and as far as I know it is usually really well tolerated and safe. If it works, that is really great, and hopefully you can stop worrying about debilitating flare ups. Methotrexate is a bit more tricky in terms of tolerance. I am also 32, but never had psoriasis. Last year, I just woke up one day feeling like I've been hit by a bus, almost every joint was affected, and the onset was so acute I had damage within weeks. By the time I was diagnosed, after months of extreme pain, the prednisolone was like a dream come true. So don't be too worried if you need it - it really helped for me. Regarding the whimsical nature of PsA; it seems this is typical. For me it has been gradually getting better over the year since I was diagnosed, so it must be that the medications are helping. Before the medicines kicked in properly, it seemed to decide on the day which joint it would like to attack. Then sometimes it looks like it's going away, only to come back again a couple of weeks later. As you mention that when it does flare it is debilitating, sounds like the treatments could really help you and is worth a try. If your blood tests show that you have high levels of inflammation, it is also important to get these under control too, so that is also a consideration. Good luck! Hope you feel better

GS: "Before the medicines kicked in properly, it seemed to decide on the day which joint it would like to attack." That is so familiar.

Medication can be areal pandora's box, some can take one type of drug no issue's then other's have nothing but problems, then one works for one and not the other, it's a strange beast. Not too mention the time involved to find the answers. For me i alway's say how do you know until you try them. As for the OP if i was offered a month of steriod treatment, i'd be jumping on that offer, you not get many offer's like that :(.