Fwd: Psoriatic arthritis vs. fibromyalgia

[Guest guest]

a:

I have both. PA was dx w/psoraisis fall 2000, and I probably had

milder forms going on at times prior to that. No one knew what the

psoraisis was before that, often looking at it as some sort of fungus.

Docs have said since at least 2004 that FM is likely part of my

laundry list of medical issues, however, adding the dx would not

change the ways in which they were treating me, so adding it did

nothing for me, according to them. When I asked the head of Rheum at a

reputable hospital/clinic if it was normal for me to ache all over and

always be in so much pain from the PA, he stopped, looked at me, and

reponded, " no, that's your fibromyalgia. " Since that time, much more

recently, I had another MRI, this time of my thoracic spine, which we

all thought was fine and blamed the pain in my back, shldr blade area

more on referred pain and FM. Turns out that my T-spine is in as bad

or worse shape than my c-spine! Every physical reason for that region

to be so painful, even w/o FM, so it does make me pause and wonder.

I saw, read, or heard somewhere that intractable pain, or the docs'

inability to control or relieve our pain, joints as well as

surrounding msucles and tissue, is eventually tx/dx as FM. Could be

why your doc says FM. Both FM like to attack feet and hands. My hands

were terrible until carpal tunnel rls, now much better and much more

tolerable. My feet are a different issue. First, it was my arches

every AM when I tried to get out of bed. Now it's the joints of my R

midfoot that have prevented me from walking normally for the past 3

yrs. So, it's two diseases that both attack the same body parts. Who

knows which one is doing what? Rheumatologist takes care of both.

You might benefit from a FM support group in trying to sort this out.

has many of them. I find that support/input from both is

helpful, although there is often more depression on FM site than PA,

but that is simply the nature of the beast and absolutely no

reflection on the caring people who are definitely there.

Hopes this helps!

Cheryl M.