Psoriasis?
Recently had a derm appointment (for a different reason), but derm had no idea what this could be. I was given some steroid ointment that did work a little bit. It kept the dryer skin parts a little more under control. The redness underneath never really went away. The ointment can only be used for 2 weeks at a time, so it comes back to this after stopping use.
I do also have joint pain, especially in my fingers. Especially in the morning, with some swelling. Other joint too, elbows especially. Nothing as bad as the hands though, joint wise. I also have pretty severe general body pain, not so much in my actual joints, but more like extreme stiffness which also hurts, especially when trying to get up from sitting. Sometimes I can barely get up. Sometimes I can barely walk. There's pain sort of like where my legs connect to my body. It's just basically all over. Of course sometimes it's not too bad. But it never fully goes away. Sometimes just sitting for even a few minutes causes the pain and stiffness. Laying across a bed, resting on a bent arm, head on hand - for just a few minutes I can barely move from that position.
I do work out a little bit. I'm in pretty good shape. Not overweight. I'm not sedentary. I do, do whatever needs to be done, I power through the pain, which may or may not be the right thing to do, idk, but I'm not going to just totally give up on things. Which I do have extreme exhaustion as well, so that does make things even harder, but I just continue on as best I can.
I had gone to a rheumatologist but I didn't have more pain upon his physical pressure, so he didn't think it was arthritis related. He did do very limited blood work, basically just checking for lupus, but that came back negative. He said if the blood work was good he wouldn't need to see me again.
I'm wondering if I should get a second opinion, either from derm and/or rheumatology? Or make follow up appointments with these past two doctors I saw? Not looking for a diagnosis from anyone here, hopefully just looking to get pointed in the right direction, if any direction even seems needed, as these past 2 different doctors didn't seem to see anything major going on.
46 year old female.