Sausage fingers...

[Guest guest]

Dear all!

I had taken a sort of vacation from the forum, and tried to pretend that

I don't have PA, but this condition is very faithful to its host and

won't leave just like that. It brought me back to the forum now. Isn't

that nice? ;-)

The news is that after a significant period of relatively mild activity,

over the last weeks both the PA and the P have come back with a

vengeance. I have psoriasis lesions almost all over my body, basically

only the face, hands and chest escaping (for the moment, at least), and

then for the first time in my life I got a real, big, impressive,

blueish, full and rounded sausage finger! It's the left index finger.

Inflammation started at the distal joint, and within a week propagated

to the next two joints and is now starting to spread to other joints in

that hand.

The not very helpful rheumatologist (or rather, his secretary) offered

to schedule me for mid november at the earliest. I said " no, thanks " ,

and started eating my way through the pill repertoire of the much more

helpful pharmacy near my home. I tried several NSAIDs, each in its

maximum recommended dosage. Naproxen turned out to take away the pain

but apparently increase the swelling. Potassic diclofenac (Cataflam)

helped quite well with both the pain and the swelling, but churned up my

stomach so badly that I had to discontinue it after just two days.

Ibuprofen and ketoprofen helped rather little. Indomethacin had

previously shown to be hard on my stomach and also on its far-end

connection. So I'm now taking Meloxicam, which takes away the pain, some

but not nearly all of the swelling, and seems to be kind to my stomach.

Can anyone give me some good advice? I'm old to PA but new to sausage

digits. All my previous joint involvement was mostly pain and stiffness,

but never much swelling. What can be done to bring the swelling down? I

understand this is just edema, or liquid accumulation. Is there anything

for this condition? My finger is stiff and stands out, it's simply too

swollen to bend it. I have to be careful with that hand, or people think

that I'm insulting them!

It seems about time to start on methotrexate, but I don't dare to

self-medicate with that stuff! I understand that frequent blood tests

are required to check if the liver is surviving it, and I don't want

people sticking needles in me. Is there perhaps any way to monitor

liver function without blood tests? Such as drinking three bottles of

wine and measuring how long one stays drunk afterwards? ;-)

Well, the last was intended as a joke... but I would love to hear any

advice you might have for me!

Manfred.

[Guest guest]

Hi! Never post anymore but have always enjoy reading

yours! I have had many sausage fingers and toes. the

fastest fix has always been local cortisone

injections to each joint on the swollen finger,

usually swelling goes down in 1-3 days. Sometimes

this the only thing that works. 1 toe was swollen for

3 years, even while I was on MTX, NSAIDs etc. Enbrel

really has helped me, still get some swelling but no

more sausage digits! (knock on wood;)

Hope the swelling comes down soon!

Take care,

D in Tokyo