Re: /Questions and Mark/Ribs

[Guest guest]

, don't forget to add any other symptoms that

indicate auto-immune disease that you may have, like

the fatigue if you have any, or things like brittle

breaking hairs along the hairline or hair loss or

Raynaud's. Having your previous records (including

Xrays and lab results) forwarded to the new doc from

your other doctors' offices before the appointment

helps too. Good luck! Hope you find a Rheumy/Pain

Center that helps!

Mark, you can have rib involvement. Mine were never

sore, but I always felt like I had a hard time taking

a deep enough breath in. That was initially one of the

reasons how I was diagnosed. I complained also of

occasional throbbing pains in the chest area. The

first rheumatologist measured my rib cage, once after

exhaling and once on my deepest inhalation possible.

Your rib cage is supposed to expand 4 cm or more with

inhalations, and mine only expanded 2 cm....he said

this was indicative of inflammation of the rib

cartilage which hampered inspiration, and that the

pain was costochondritis related to the inflammation.

He said these were signs (along with my other

complaints of hip, back, and toe joint pain) of

spondyloarthropathy, a group of auto-immune

seronegative arthritis conditions which psoriatic

arthritis is one of. After he put me on the

Methotrexate to stop further joint damage, my lung

expansion improved as the inflammation subsided. Hope

this helped. Take care.

Wanda

Wanda

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