APS and arthritis

[kimmi9]

hi everyone i hope know one minds me asking this question !! What is the link between APS and arthritis and how does it work ?? im only in my first yr of diagnoses but been having alot of the symptoms for along time , it was only when i had a blood clot in my portal vein that things really got going , i did have a dvt after giving birth 17yrs ago but little was known then , i have been having lots of troubles since , i have read lots of blogs and it seems quite common , i would really appreciate some info Thank Kim x x

[jetjetjet]

Hi -Kim -can't give you the info where i found it but A.V.N. is a direct result of A.P.S. and i also have osteoarthritis and i believe if in fact it didn't give it to me it certainly made it spread like wild fire along with my Avn-- i don't have time right now but i can find it if someone else doesn't respond to you 1st ---- jet

[kimmi9]

hey jet thank you for your reply kim x

[MaryF Administrator]

Hi there, I have psoriatic arthropathy arthritis, sjogrens, Lupus and thyroid issues, I think a lot of us on here have a wide spectrum of types of arthritis x

Mary F x

[kimmi9]

Hi APsnotfab , im currently waiting on blood tests to come back , it may not even be arthritis but after chatting to my gp it might be , but i noticed with alot of people blogging it seem`s to be common!! im just after some info on how it works in conjunction with APS , all i know is that there are alot more different types of arthritis that i thought , i hope that im making sense as im a bit confused and foggy today and when im like that i talk to much rubbish usually , sorry if im going on a bit i think now that i should shut up lol . Thanks You for listening Kim x

[happiness45]

There both autoimune deseases and you can get more than one im afraid

[GinaD]

Kim, in my case I am utterly convinced that the excessive inflammatory responce triggers the worsening of my osteoarthritis. You see, the immune system targets injured, inflamed areas. And I undoubtedly have an OA spot --the X-ray is most clear. Now i know OA develops --it gets worse over time. I know this. I do not dispute this. But after living inside my hyper-inflammatory body for 57 years now, I know that the inflammation targets already damaged and inflamed areas and makes them worse. Like throwing gasoline on a fire.

I have docs who want to operate and replace the hip; but, aside from the fact that I have multiple drug allergies and readying me for surgery would be difficult and expensive, I know that the inflammation is going to start right in on chewing the tissues surrounding my new joint.

I have docs who think I must be exaggerating the pain levels. Welcome to the " we 're all nuts" autoimmune club.

And I have docs who think my inflammation really is the root cause, but that inflammation is psychosomatic in origin. These docs believe I could positively think my way out of this if I could only " see the light.".

But finally I have a new doc who agrees with my assessment -that the inflammation must be tamed first. She put me on a week course of steroids and my pain level went fron 6-7 down to zero.

Since then the pain had been slowly ratcheting up again. But I continue to identify inflammatory factors I can eliminate. In the past my health has greatly improved by eliminating gluten from my diet, improving my previously horrid gait and posture, raising my INR, returning very carefully to NSAIDS, and, most recently, eliminating the bioidentical hormones which that prescribing doctor wanted me to stay on for life.

It has been a struggle to stay pain free and mobile. I identify a problem, work to fix it, and slowly improve. Then my gains level out. Then I find another inflammation promoter, eliminate it, and again, slowly get better.

Some people in my life think I am just giving myself the placebo effect --fake fixes as it were. I understand their rationale, but I rather think not.

But the OA damage was and is ongoing. I don't know how much of my activity level I'm going to get back. Oh well .

But my advice to you or anyone else with autoimmune skeletons in the closet? Pay attention to your body. Keep charts on pain levels and possible triggers --food, meds, ( taken or not,) specific exercises or posture correction disciplines, stress levels, weather. And if you find a correlation, try and tease out if this is, for your body, an inflammatory trigger.

We're just like everybody else in that our joints wear out too. But with respect to myself, and buttressed by the postings from this board, I am sure the APLS is contributing to arthritis. But since arthrituis is so common, docs think they know all about this. They hear those hoof beats in the darkness and, logically, think " horses."

Except we're the zebras.

[kimmi9]

Thank you eveyone for your reply`s , it seems to me what you are saying is that arthritis certainly does have an impact on people with APS , and that the doc`s are either un employed about it or they are wearing blinker`s , it`s such a shame that we all have to do our own homework on this subject. Kim x