Basically, I used to eat yogurt in the mornings and im having a hard time making meals with ZERO of what "isnt allowd" mostly being dairy and grain.
Am I overthinking? Could my morning yogurt be too much?
Obviously no cheeseburgers for me, but what about feta in my salad? Creamer in my coffee? Where do you guys draw the line?
I think we can all agree that the topical CBD market is flooded with cash grab products. You buy a jar expecting joint relief and end up with greasy skin that smells like fake mint.
I fell into the trap with Bloomz recently. The texture was fine, but as far as actual deep tissue or muscular relief went, it was super underwhelming. It felt like paying premium prices for basic skincare. I ended up picking up TribeTokes after digging into their lab results. They focus heavily on clean extraction and pair 1,000mg of high potency full spectrum CBD with wintergreen and peppermint oils. When I rub it on my shoulders after a long work session, it actually melts the tension away within minutes instead of sitting on top of my skin.
For those using topicals regularly, how much mg dosage do you usually need per application to feel a real difference? Does anyone else feel like half these brands are hiding weak ingredients behind shiny packaging?
I was diagnosed with PsA with enthesitis, the doctor said i didn't have dactylitis.
When I flare up I have pain in my fingers, toes, Achilles, ankles, knees, elbows (the exact combo is unpredictable and changes over time).
I noticed that during flare-ups my fingers look more puffy, swollen and just "fat" or full of fluid, compared to outside of flare-ups. Yet they're not boiling red and the swelling isn't really localised to one knuckle.
Is that a common occurrence with only enthesitis? I feel swollen from everywhere it's so annoying.
I (25F) received my diagnosis just a few short hours ago and im not sure how i feel.
Its one thing to be in the stages of diagnosis and being so frustrated when nothing is confirmed, but its a whole other thing when the diagnostics become definite.
I will be starting Methetrexate on the coming monday and im dreading the possible side effects because im already in a world of pain and fatigue and just want to scream and cry all the time. Feeling/being sick on top of that just makes it more exhausting, but im hopeful that i will soon find some relief :)
Help! I’m having a flare up of something and it’s really stressing me out.
I was diagnosed about a year ago with psoriatic arthritis by a rheumatologist after scans and blood work. He’s pretty confident. I have always had scalp psoriasis quite badly plus some other small patches on my skin. I have really bad morning stiffness that reduces when I start to move. When I have a flare ups it often involves scalp psoriasis getting worse and burning hands and feet, as well as stiffness. So it meets many of the hallmarks. He wants to start me on methotrexate.
BUT
I’m 45 and for the past two decades I’ve been a daily drinker, often three or four, sometimes six or more beers. It started as a way of self-medicating for untreated anxiety, then the habit stuck. I’m worried that some of the symptoms are more similar to alcohol induced neuropathy which seems scarier. I’m worried I’ve done myself permanent damage through dumb drinking. But also, the symptoms seem to come and go in flare ups and are not permanent like neuropathy.
My question is how can medical professionals distinguish between the two in diagnosis?
Also if it is alcoholic neuropathy, I would feel an immense amount of guilt for letting my family and children down by something I’m soley responsible for. Any advice?
Hello friends- I just started leflunomide five days ago, and every night I have been woken up by leg cramps. Feels like this can’t be a coincidence….so I wanted to ask this community if you have ever experienced this as well? Did it eventually subside? I had all my baseline labs done and they are fine. I’m hydrated. I’m exhausted!
I am so frustrated and feel awful. I’ve been on Rinvoq since mid July and I truly think it is making me feel worse.i started on methotrexate and my liver. Levels went crazy. Switched to Humira with no luck. Then on to Taltz and Bimzelx with moderate help but eventually stopped working . Now on Rinvoq. This is the absolute worst I’ve felt. Inflammation is crazy and my knees are on fire everyday and making my life miserable. Anyone else have issues on this? Where do I go from here?! Feeling very defeated and depressed. Diagnosed in 2021. Female age 54 if that helps at all. The medical runaround is frustrating as hell!
Hi, I'm 23 years old, and I'm starting to get a little concerned, but I keep brushing it off as other things. My mother, who's chronically ill and has been in the medical field, keeps telling me it might be Psa. I'm going to see the doctor, but I'm waiting on my insurance from my new job
For context, around 19, when I got my first job, I got a really, really bad case of contact dermatitis on my hands, or at least we think it was. And after that, it wouldn't go away and would get bad, better, and then way worse. To the point that my hands were unusable and always cracking and bleeding. It would even spread up my arm, and we thought it was because of the chemicals in the dishwater at my work; it would get better when I didn't do dishes or washed my hands with the soap they provided. But for years since 19, I've had it on and off, and for some reason it always popped up when I was extremely stressed at work.
Now, around 20 or so, I started seemingly having joint pain. starting in my hands and feet, alongside the rashes that would sometimes be on my elbows as well. The pain would come and go and usually was in my hands, elbows, sometimes knees, and feet. I am a heavy person, so feet and knees, sure. But my hands and elbows were the most affected. Alongside other symptoms, of having really stiff hands in the morning that lasted for almost an hour or more. And despite taking steroids, the only thing that worked was this over-the-counter psoriatic hand lotion.
Now I'm 23, and after not experiencing anything wrong except a rash or two on my face (not a butterfly rash; it was red and flaky like psoriasis) for a while, I began waking up with stiff hands again for the last 3 days. I thought it was just because I started a new cooking job that I had never done before, and I was adjusting to using my hands again. But this morning and yesterday, I felt it in my entire body, practically. Mostly my hands, neck, and shoulders, but my back and elbows too. It felt like I woke up with early-onset rigor mortis, to be dramatic. And now I'm at work, miserable and concerned. I'm even developing an itchy rash again on one side of my face, just a small one, not a butterfly rash
As well as that, I also have some weird pinprick nail pitting on one single nail. Also recently found out my father had psoriasis, but I don't think he had PSA.
39 M. I wanted to share my PsA journey because my experience has been pretty extreme, and I’m curious if anyone else has gone through something similar.
This all started in May 2025, while I was training for a 120-mile bike race called the Triple Bypass. I was riding a ton and was in some of the best cycling shape of my life. Then I started developing pain and weakness in my left inner thigh.
At first, I thought I had simply overdone it. But over the next several months, things progressively got worse.
By October, walking was becoming increasingly difficult. What had started as something I thought might be an overuse injury had turned into something that was affecting my ability to function normally.
By December, things had gotten dramatically worse. I was essentially wheelchair/walker bound and was hospitalized for a week. I went from training for a 120-mile bike race just months earlier to struggling to walk.
During this period I was dealing with severe weakness and pain in both legs, cramping, joint pain, swelling, fatigue, and a variety of other symptoms. At my lowest point, I felt like I was functioning at maybe 15–20% of normal.
And getting an answer wasn’t easy. Over the course of this, I saw 17 different doctors, including specialists at Mayo Clinic. I had test after test and appointment after appointment trying to figure out what was happening.
One of the most frustrating parts was that my bloodwork didn’t necessarily look like what you would expect from someone who was this sick. My ESR and CRP were normal, and I’m seronegative. Eventually, after months of uncertainty and a lot of testing, I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. The road back has been long.
I’ve tried steroids, CellCept, and eventually started Enbrel. I’ve also made major dietary changes, including going on an AIP diet.
The AIP diet has honestly been one of the hardest parts. It’s incredibly restrictive, and trying to maintain it while dealing with severe fatigue, weakness, and everything else going on has been challenging. I’ve spent a huge amount of time figuring out what foods I tolerate, doing reintroductions, and trying to determine what actually makes a difference.
Thankfully, things have gradually improved.
My rheumatologist now considers my PsA to be at minimal disease activity, and Enbrel has made a significant difference. But getting the inflammation under control hasn’t meant that my physical capabilities immediately returned.
The recovery has been slow.
I’ve gradually worked my way back to walking thousands of steps a day, swimming, and cautiously getting back on the bike. Recently, I rode about 14 miles at 17 mph. For a cyclist who was training for a 120-mile race, that doesn’t sound impressive.
For someone who was wheelchair-bound less than a year ago, it was a huge milestone.My legs were tired afterward, especially my left leg, and I’m still learning how carefully I need to manage increases in activity.
That’s probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned through all of this:Getting the disease under control and getting your body back aren’t necessarily the same thing.
I’m still hoping to eventually get back to long-distance cycling. I’ve thought about doing an Ironman for years. Right now that goal feels very far away, but a year ago I couldn’t walk normally, and now I’m riding a bike again.So I’ll take the wins.
For anyone else with PsA who went from being very active to suddenly being severely limited: how long did it take you to rebuild your strength and endurance after getting the disease under control?
And for anyone who has tried AIP or another highly restrictive diet, I’d especially love to hear your experience—whether you felt it helped and how you managed to stick with it.
Hi guys! I 19(F) got diagnosed with PsA back in April and since then it has been trial and error of so many different medications.
We finally got to the methotrexate or biologics conversation, and my rheum and derm teamed up to provide a lengthy reasoning as to why they want me on biologics.
Insurance basically said "I don't care." We tried appealing, denied on appeal flat out because I didn't do methotrexate. So, I'm on methotrexate now for the next 3 months. My rheum said its a 50/50 shot if it works, but my worry is the side effects. Especially hair loss.
My hair is the one thing I feel I can control in my life about my appearance. Even if I feel like absolute shit, and my world is collapsing, at least my hair is pretty and looks good. When my hair is good, I feel better. I've been trying to grow it to my tailbone and I'm about 5 inches away from my goal now, with healthy dense shiny hair. Maybe I'm too vain, but honestly I don't care. I'm devastated. I'm so worried my hair will fall out and turn into a wispy ugly mess because of insurance being greedy. Just another thing being sick will have taken away from me.
Some days I just feel so ugly with my nails peeling in layers, my skin inflamed and dull, etc. Losing my hair would honestly just push me over the edge into a full blown "woe is me" mental state which I've been trying very hard to not let take over me.
I am on folic acid pills daily to supposedly help combat this but I've read in other forums that sometimes it doesn't matter and your hair will still fall out, you'll still get painful ulcers, etc. Even on a low dose like I am (10mg to start, then 15mg for two weeks, then final 20mg dose until 3 month check in).
I need some support, or advice, or reassurance it'll be okay and if my hair is falling out I can beg to stop the med and say side effects are too bad and insurance won't be an asshole about it.
My husband's back into shirts at work and our old iron is so heavy and cumbersome. Can anyone in the UK recommend a good iron to use - ergonomic and light but also effective?
I’ve got my first NHS appointment on the 28th this month, guess I’m just wanting to know the likelyhood of coming away with a diagnosis or an idea of what’s going on, thanks!
Hello, I recently managed to see a Rheumatologist who after an initial examination, thinks I have PSA with some spondylitis (I was thinking the same before the appointment, so the affirmation feels good).
The doctor started me off on Naproxen 500 MG twice daily, which seems to work, but only mildly at pain reduction. I see them again in under a month for more imaging and testing to confirm my diagnosis, as some of the usual markers (blood, x rays) are coming up inconclusive (she thinks I'm seronegative). I didn't get much time to talk because a large chunk of the hour long appointment was consumed by diagnostic questioning.
My question is, if it's normal for your Doc to initially start you off on an NSAID? I would've assumed a DMARD would've been where we started for prevention purposes. I know in Canada you typically don't start on a biologic. Could this be kind of like a diagnostic round of prednisone where my Doc is using relief from the NSAID as a way to confirm something autoimmune is going on?
Could it just be because they've yet to confirm a diagnosis, so they are wary to hand out stronger meds? Finally, my Doc left me their phone number so maybe I should just contact them, but I was wondering if being put on only an NSAID at first was common. Long post, so thank you for reading.
Hi all! I was just here about a week ago asking about Methotrexate. Thank you all so much for your responses, they were very helpful and insightful. I really appreciate it!
I just saw my doctor again and she has now suggested, that as my PsA is on the milder side, to start with Sulfasalazine alone and if it worsens or doesn’t improve, to add on/replace with Methotrexate.
Most people here seem to be on a combination of both, and I haven’t heard much about Sulfasalazine. Just curious as to how effective Sulfasalazine is? Is it worth it to hold off on Methotrexate?
Thank you guys so much!
How does our disease affect what we do about vaccines?
I always used to get an annual flu shot. Do we still do that? Are we supposed to get more than one per season now, because we’re immune suppressed?
And with a covid vaccine, same question. I think we’re supposed to have more than an annual shot now right? How often do you get yours?
And do immune suppressed people have any issues with the timing of vaccines, compared to people with normal immune systems?
For example, healthy people might get a flu shot and covid shot on the same day. Is that ok for us? Or should we spread them out, to give our bodies a chance to react to each one?
No matter which doctor I ask questions, my rheumatologist wants to hand me off to my primary, and my primary wants to hand me off to the rheumatologist — so it’s hard getting basic information.
Thank you so much.
I am hoping to get some opinions on which doctor would be the best place to start in order to get a concrete diagnosis and hopefully some relief of what I am certain is psoriatic arthritis. I have been putting this off for years but am now at a point where my mobility has become a serious issue and I’m afraid of the further damage I’ll be doing if I continue doing nothing.
Keep in mind I have not been officially diagnosed with anything, nor do I claim to be a doctor but with these symptoms I don’t think a medical license is needed to see what I’m looking at…
Years ago what I wrote off as just a summertime “itchy scalp” my hairdresser thought looked a lot more like psoriasis which I just learned to live with and used an OTC shampoo whenever I experienced flare ups. No big deal.
Then I started noticing my toenails were growing very thick. They looked to be growing in layers on top of each other rather than just growing long. Sometimes even painful to just have cut when getting a pedicure. One time my entire big toenail came off completely when I just stubbed my toe on a coffee table!
Then itchy patches of dry, flaky skin were showing up on my knees and the top and bottoms of my feet. I developed a quarter size patch of what looks to be layers upon layers of thick, dry skin on one of my knees that resembles a giant scab but white in color, not the reddish purple of a normal scab. Random tiny, itchy blisters in between my fingers and wrists would appear out of nowhere.
I have always had issues with foot pain due to being born with extremely flat feet and a drill team injury from years ago in high school, but my feet were saving their best work for now! I developed swelling in my feet and toes, and every single step I take is excruciating. My joints are so weak I feel like my feet are falling inwards, almost like I am walking on the insides of my ankles. Stepping on an elastic pony tail holder while barefoot feels like a thousand jagged rocks.
Then this past year I have noticed it was getting harder and harder for me to stand up from a seated position. When trying to just laugh it off as “getting old sucks!” I knew it wasn’t. I am 58 years old - not 88 this isn’t just from getting older, this is a real problem that I need to get a handle on today.
Lastly, my quality of life is non-existent. Most days even a quick trip to the post office is a struggle and more and more I find myself asking my husband to pick something up from the store for me rather than the effort it takes for me to just get in the car. I’m not going to lie, I feel like life is passing me by. I’m sad and depressed.
So where do I start? My problem is I haven’t been to a doctor in years - for anything. Reading everyone’s stories tells me this disease isn’t an easy one - just getting diagnosed looks to be an uphill climb. So my question is, which doctor should I start with to get the ball rolling the quickest?
General Doctor?
Dermatologist?
Foot Doctor?
Rheumatologist?
I feel like the goal is to get an appointment with a rheumatologist, but do I need one of the others to refer me to one or can I just cut out all the paperwork and start there?
When making the appointment do I just say I think I may have psoriatic arthritis? I know most doctors despise when patients come in with a self diagnosis.
I am in the US and currently have an obvious skin psoriasis lesion visible on my knee if that helps in the diagnosis.
Thanks in advance and thank you for reading my lengthy ramble.
I just started Bimzelx and I was in a very bad way. Vasculitis and third spacing fluid retention. I’ve already noticed some improvement but I have a horrible candida infection in my mouth and throat and my enthesitis is acting up worse than ever. I can barely talk. Severe dry eyes, mouth and nose. Sinus congestion, severe sore throat and my jaw is very swollen and painful. I scheduled a dental appointment for tomorrow but if anyone has any advice, or if you’ve experienced anything similar please let me know and thank you to everyone here.
I recently got back into reading and got several books at my library and love them, but I'm having issues holding them. My fingers always swell. Due to my back issues I'm usually in my recliner. I really need something that's good to hold them as I read and my Kindle. I have the straps that attach to all sides on my Kindle and it's a big difference, but it does start to hurt in long sessions. I appreciate any help!
Hi, all, I have not been officially diagnosed with PSA, but my symptoms sound like they are painting a picture of it. I have a doctor appointment later today to go see be my labs (which all came back normal!) but in the meantime, I was wondering…
I had agonizing pain in my hand that lasted about 48 hours. My hand was like a claw and could not close or open and it felt like it was in a vice grip. It was so incredibly painful. I also had some milder pain in my elbow and shoulder.
Today the pain is much better, though still there. However, the rest of my body now feels like I have the flu. I even have a very low-grade temp of 99.1. My body is aching from head to toe.
• Does this sound like PsA?
• Does this happen to anyone else?
Thanks!
I’ve had psoriatic arthritis for 12 years and have tried Humira, Cosentyx, Tremfya, Otezla, methotrexate, Rinvoq, Xeljanz, Simponi, Stelara, and Remicade with cyclosporine. Some helped temporarily to a decent level (max 70-80% normality), but I’ve never reached remission, and several stopped working or caused side effects.
My biggest issues now are widespread enthesitis and axial symptoms. I’m wondering whether a dedicated PsA clinic might offer a more comprehensive assessment or spot something that a regular rheumatology practice has missed.
Has anyone been treated at a specialized clinic such as the UHN Psoriatic Arthritis Clinic at Toronto Western Hospital, or a similar academic PsA center?
I’d especially like to hear from people who:
Did the specialty clinic do anything meaningfully different? Was it worth the referral and wait? If you attended the UHN clinic specifically, what was your experience like?