Went from Psoriatic arthritis to fibromyalgia to osteoarthritis

[Sunshine23]

Hello everyone. It’s been awhile since I’ve used this account. I was previously diagnosed with endometriosis. After two surgeries I’m mostly symptom free. Then found out I also have hemochromatosis. Psoriasis runs in the family as well as arthritis but no one I know of has gone to a specialist. About 5 months ago I started having joint pain so bad I could barely bend my knees, then my fingers and arms started getting worse too. My doctor “diagnosed” me with fibromyalgia due to my bloodwork not showing anything else. Medication did nothing (tried two kinds, gabapentin and something else I can’t remember). Went to a rheumatologist, he implied that since I don’t take that much medication it must not be that bad. I have high pain tolerance and just lived with it until it affected my ability to walk and think straight. I finally said at the worst point I took a ton of naproxen with no relief and got prescribed muscle relaxers and meloxicam. Most days the meloxicam dulls the pain to the point I can still do things, but occasionally my knee or shoulder pain gets bad enough I can’t concentrate. I’ve taken the muscle relaxers twice since I got the prescription a month ago since the pain was really bad when I tried to sleep. I’m supposed to get X-rays of my right knee after the rheum suddenly decided that he did hear a strange noise when bending my knee (all my joints popped constantly during my worst week. Knees, ankles, shoulders), but only after I pushed him for answers. I’m also developing carpal tunnel in my left wrist that I honestly rarely use. I bought a whole collection of high quality braces (bauerfeind) just to keep me moving long enough to keep my job. I tried to do an accommodation at my work but I have no “diagnosed” condition that they respect and they ignore my constant requests to transfer to another department/store that would help cut down on the physical and mental stress. Anyone else have a similar experience who can give advice on where to go from here? Stuff that has given you relief?

[Batty1]

First off your Rheumatologist is a jerk to dismiss your pains and not properly diagnose you (get a new Rheumy) and your Doctor should be fired for being dumb and handing out the lazy diagnosis … Psoriatic Arthritis (PSA) has NO TEST to diagnose with its simply gets diagnosed by doing X-rays and looking at Inflammation markers in blood and having a Family history of psoriasis….. If you don’t get a proper diagnosis and treatment you will end up like me bedridden for 2 years because PSA is life sucking and health destroying if left untreated. The other issue with PSA is untrained doctors will tell you that you have osteoarthritis and this is your issues (its 100% possible to have both PSA and Osteoarthritis) at the same time but a trained doctor would see the difference between PSA and OA and yes they actually do look different and symptoms of OA and PSA will also be different.

My knees pop just as you described and my PSA attacks every tendon in my body it’s brutal and its crippling left untreated…. Im still dealing with a 5 year PSA flare and It took me 2 years to get diagnosed and treated but the delayed destroyed my body I can’t walk or stand very long although it’s starting to get a little better.

I would Seek out new Rheumatologist who specializes in PSA and get a new doctor.

Things that helped me :

Amazon: Massage gun ($50) best thing ever

Australian Dream Cream ( amazing stuff) it worked wonders for me.

Bio Freeze patches… works great

CBD lotions also helped

Advil (can’t live without) take one tablet every night

Magnesium (can’t live without) take every night.

Im sure others will have suggestions.

[Sunshine23 in reply to Batty1]

Thanks so much for the detailed reply!! Yeah I was thinking the same thing in regards to maybe having both conditions, would explain why the flares are debilitating to this point because both are attacking different things in the same places.

My doctor is actually great, I was annoyed with how she handled that specific part of it but after I went back she basically tried everything she could so that the rheum wouldn’t try it too then let me pick what direction to go in. So I got a referral really easily and we had tried fibromyalgia meds, steroids, etc just to report it to the rheum so he went straight to an xray. Sadly I have no idea if I’ll be able to convince him to look into PSA more.

So thinking I may go get the xray, bur cancel my appointment with him and try someone else 🤣 just to move things along a little faster.

Oooh I will get the massage gun ASAP, that seems nice. I take magnesium and boron every night. Will look into the creams.

Thanks so much for all the information!!!

[Batty1 in reply to Sunshine23]

You need to locate a rheumatologist that specializes in PSA this is what I had to do because I could hardly walk at the point I realized osteoarthritis wasn’t my issue (osteoarthritis) doesn’t cause PSA type of pain it’s different way different (osteoarthritis) you will feel a grinding in your joints only during movement with PSA it hurts 24/7 active or not .

My first Rheumy appointment it took me 1-1/2 hours to walk into his office and he looked at me and said oh you have OA take aspirin…. The 2 year delay destroyed my body because once the damage is done its done you don’t recover.