How do I know I have psoriatic arthritis?

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/16/2003 4:30:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,

peachums2001@... writes:

> Can PA be 'brought on' by trama?

>

Hi - I think mine was brought on by stress but any surgery, injury, etc.

could surely do it to. The difficult thing about PA is there is no test to

prove you have it. Everything else just gets ruled out. If I were in your

shoes, I would insist that my primary get me a referral to see a

rheumatologist quick. It sounds like you are suffering way too much and need

some treatment whether it really is PA or something else. No one should have

to be in that much pain.

Wishing you well,

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/16/2003 4:30:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,

peachums2001@... writes:

> . I have been to ALL types of

> doctors but they cannot come up with anything.

> Has anyone else had this experience? Can PA be 'brought on' by trama

I had surgery in both knees 6 months ago which definitely led to a flare up

of all my joints hurting. That is when I was diagnosed with PA. I hurt in

my wrists, fingers, ankles, back, neck, knees, etc. The surgeryt I think is

a stressor and can bring this on.

Janet

[Guest guest]

About 1 and 1/2 years ago- I had an injury to my R wrist. I ended

up having surgery a few months later but I never recoved and my L

wrist started hurting also (for no apparent reason). I have been out

of work for 14 months because of this. The pain is in my wrists,

hands, forarms, elbows and now my ankles. I have psoriasis- I have

had it for longer than I can remember. I have been to ALL types of

doctors but they cannot come up with anything.

Has anyone else had this experience? Can PA be 'brought on' by trama?

Does it get progessively worse? Even this little bit of typing is

really hurting my hands...my hands get swollen and very sore. I get

stabbing shooting pains. Now it has spread to my ankles...

any thoughts?

[Guest guest]

Sounds like PA for sure. You can look on the internet for articles about PA &

yours sounds like to symmetrical kind...but it can be anyway...it usually

strikes wrists, hands, feet, extremeties....Sorry

[Guest guest]

>I think most people in here will agree that their PA

>was brought on by some type of trauma. Surgery, car

>wreck, mine was brought on by doing Tae Kwon Do

>(karate).

I believe mine was brought on by the silliest possible thing -- a badly

stubbed toe!

I injured it when my cat got underfoot and I tripped over the vacuum

cleaner as a

result. The toe swelled up a little and was very sore for a few days, but I

thought it

would heal soon enough. It didn't. It just got more and more swollen, and

soon after

that the next toe got swollen, and things started from there.

It has always struck me as very odd how one small injury could have

triggered this

disease, but I've never heard anyone else say that their PA started with an

injury

or trauma so this is kind of reassuring to me! My thought on this has

always been

that the PA was sort of lying dormant, and when a joint was injured it

suddenly gave

the PA the chance it needed to start " doing its thing " . I don't know if

there's *any*

basis for my little theory, but it seems like the only thing that makes

sense to me.

If someone actually knows something more about this, I'd sure be interested

in hearing

about it, because, as I said, I've always found it quite curious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Visit my personal web site at

http://members.shaw.ca/tljohnson/

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/17/03 3:28:42 AM Central Standard Time,

tljohnson@... writes:

> My thought on this has always been that the PA was sort of lying dormant,

> and when a joint was injured it suddenly gave the PA the chance it needed

> to start " doing its thing

I have never seen it mentioned before but why couldnt that work the same way

as the Koebner phenomena on the skin? Orin

[Guest guest]

At 07:19 AM 3/17/03 -0500, Orin wrote:

>I have never seen it mentioned before but why couldnt that work the same way

>as the Koebner phenomena on the skin? Orin

I'm not familiar with the Koebner phenomena. (My doctors never seem to go

into a lot of detail with me, so sometimes I miss out on the terminology.)

Can you enlighten me? Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Visit my personal web site at

http://members.shaw.ca/tljohnson/

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/17/03 8:56:30 AM Central Standard Time,

tljohnson@... writes:

> I'm not familiar with the Koebner phenomena. (My doctors never seem to go

> into a lot of detail with me, so sometimes I miss out on the terminology.)

> Can you enlighten me? Thanks!

>

>

>

The Koebner phenomena refers to a tendecy among psoriatics that when the skin

is injured many times once the injury heals that same spot goes on to develop

a psoriatic plaque. Orin