Hello Group

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone. My name is Amy Flanagan, I'm 27, and a grad student in

Acting. I was just diagnosed with PA a few days ago. said

that I should post a brief health bio, so here goes!

I guess the first interesting point is that I've never had the skin

psoriasis at all. My first flare of chronic pain happened in April

2000, at the time I had just had one of my knees arthroscoped and I

thought it was related to that. Returning to school after Christmas,

I started to get a much worse flare, with asymmetrical joint

involvement (I know all this now, I had no idea then)and really

rotten stiffness and swelling. I'm in school at this time and trying

to take dance class and yoga and all the acting classes and I'm sure

you all know how that was just not happening. I managed to beg my

way in to see a rheumatologist at the National Rehabilitation

Hospital. He was very nice, very kind, did all the blood tests, and

of course they were all negative. Upon getting the tests back, he

really seemed happy for me, and told me not to worry, the stiffness

would go away. I told him I didn't think so, and he wrote me a huge

Vioxx prescription (I was on 50mg/day at this point) and told me I

could stay on it as long as I liked. After another week dealing with

this pain, which the Vioxx barely touched, I went to the school's

health services to see if they would give me something that was

stronger, but non-narcotic. They sent me to a orthopedist (???) who

told me I needed to exercise and I needed an anti-depressant. He

gave me some samples of Arthrotec and sent me on my way. Back at

health services, they did the full court press on me telling me I

really needed an anti-depressant, (and it was hard to argue that I

didn't since I was crying), and they prescribed me Arthrotec and

Amitryptilane. Nice drug, amitryptilane. The next four days were

really hazy, and then I stopped taking it. A few weeks later I saw a

chiropractor who suggested I try an elimination diet (and at this

point I was willing to try anything), and surprisingly enough, it

really helped. This is already way longer than I intended so I won't

go into the details here but I will post another message talking

about it. Flash forward to this summer: Despite the diet, the

symptoms started coming back again, fingers swelling so much I

couldn't pop the top on a soda. I got a referral to a new

rheumatologist, waited a month for the appointment, and finally saw

him last Thursday. I had written up an entire chronology of my

symptoms (dating back to 1994), which I gave to him. He read it,

nodded, asked me a few questions, left so I could change, came back

in and told me it was PA. He was really wonderful and spent a lot of

time explaining the condition and the differences from RA, the

various treatments, etc. I had never heard of PA until a few days

ago, so I'm wanting to learn as much as possible. I've started on

prednisone, 7.5mg/day, and as soon as the liver tests come back he

wants to start me on methotrexate. I've already gotten so much

encouragement from this group, because I've been reading messages and

case histories over the weekend, and it's such a huge relief to know

that there are people going through what I'm going through. I look

forward to talking with all of you, and exchanging help, support, and

advice. Catch you soon.....Amy