An Intro from CTNATIVE@...

October 29, 1998

Hello fellow PA 'ers,

My name is , I live in the greater NYC metro area,

and I came up with the idea to have a mailing list just for

Psoriatic Arthritis over the past few months. In my entire

life, I still have not met in person, another person with severe

Psoriatic Arthritis, so I knew it would be so helpful to me to

share info, support, and commonalities with other PA'ers.

It is so wonderful that there are about 40 of us so far who

signed up to the group. I have also a Physician who gets

the digest form each night who will try her best to answer

any medical questions we may have! (Thanks to Dr. )

I am in my late thirties,married, a mother of three, and currently am on

Social Security Disability (since 1990) due to

the severe PA, Psoriasis (mostly palms) and Sjogrens Syndrome I have. The

psoriasis started when I was only ten.

I used to go to bed fitted out like an astronaut - large gallon

size baggies on hands and feet, saran wrap around my elbows and knees, I am

sure many of you can relate. Of course the wrap up occurred only after a

long soak in horrible blaCK tar in the tub and a few hairwashes with the

mostly ineffective Sebulex green shampoo we had available in the early 70's.

I'll leave the rest of my story for another day,

I hope this gets the group going to share our common experiences.

An update : My surgery went well. I am still in a bad flare

(sed rate 75 - CR Protein off the chart). I went to the derm

on Monday and was prescribed an antibiotic and given

several injections into the finger and palm plaques - the coolest thing (pun

intended) is that when I jokingly asked them to give me a block at the wrist

for the pain - they came up with a freezing spray to use - which they did

liberally-

the doc got frosty hands- and it took away 80% of the pain-

I guess it never hurts to ask.- they were pleasantly surprised

that it worked and are going to try it on their other patients

only one-

Have a good day,

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