Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Do you have Psoriatic Arthritis?

At 51 ,I am disabled by AS.I fought it for 32 years and finally had to retier last year .I have a 59 year old brother who has psoraissis bad.He has really messed up fingernailsand patches all over his scalp and body.He woreout a hip joint out a few years ago but still goes back packing in the Sierras several times a month to catch and release trout. A 57 year old brother in Australia has had ulcerative colitis for 35 years but seems to get along OK. I have a brother in law with psoriatic arthritis so i am keeping my fingers crossed for my 10 year old son. All these diseases are related and are hereditary.My dad had AS but it did not cause him much problem until his late 60's.I hope they get on with the research into these related deseases.Unfortunately they don't sem to be one of your popular diseases ,althoughI i don't feel any resentment about the diseases that are more inthe public's eye such as cancer and aids.I just wish our obscure diseases had more publicity.
Kev

Hi Catherine
Just found your message. It would have been interesting to know whether my mum did have AS but unfortunately, she died in 1994. I do know though, that I have had problems especially in my legs with regards pain, since i was about 13yrs old. The doctors then said it was growing pains. It could have been I suppose. I also started having very painful feet, which made for difficult walking around that time, and have had this on and off ever since. Low back pain has always been there on and off. It just makes me wonder how many of us have AS for many years before diagnosis. Once I really started to have problems in 2000 after my hysterectomy, was when I had to finally get things sorted, and like I said it only took 12months from then to be diagnosed. Working in a hospital also probably helped because I knew what channel to go through when i hit a blank wall with my first GP.
Take care.
Love
Sue

Hey Sue, I just read your comment about your mom dying in 1994, so you don't know if she had AS. I had the same question about my dad, who died in 1991, so I got in touch with the people storing his old medical records and obtained them so that I could go through them. I'm wondering if you might be able to do the same thing, as there would be indicators in her records, even if they weren't looking for AS.

Might be worth a try. In my case, there was no AS in my dad, so at least that's one question answered.

Hugs,

Kat


"I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."- Thomas Edison

Hi I've only posted here a few times but have also found this site to be one of the best for getting questions answered. I was dx. with psoratic arthritis, psoratic spondolitis and psoratic spondoarmyopathy to be exact, with a side of bone marrow edema in my hips. Nuclear bone scan showed arthritis in feet, ankles,hips,shoulders elbows wrists and hands. MRI should narrowing and inflamation in s.i. joints. I do have psorisis on my hands and feet only and it's not that bad usually, but the last few mths the arthritis has left me having a pretty hard time. Rhume put me on vioxx and methotrexate right away, he said if you are in a flare for more than six weeks this is standard proceedure, at the time I had been in bad shape for about 6 or 7 mths unchecked while all the other specilists tried to figure out what was going on. I did lots of reading and figured I either had psoratic or AS. the symtoms are so close in regards to the hips lower and upper spine problems. I do not get sausage like fingers or toes as is common with psoratic but my hands and feet are the two place that are never painfree, in 4 mths I find I now am having trouble picking up and holding a glass.This is moving so fast through my joints, places that didn't bother me 6 mths ago now are causing me major grief. Heres hoping the rhume is correct about the mehtotrexate shutting down the autoimmune system and getting this to slow down, I hate to think where I'll be in 6 more mths.Do any of you have problems with inflamation around any organs? Rhume says this is a problem with my kidneys and is possibly the cause of my high bp. average day it's around 145 to 150 over 90 to 95.
I see a dermatoigest and he started me on a steroid cream for my hands and feet don't know if it helps yet and gp gave me steroid drops for my eyes, what I always took for alergies is inflamation of the iris. I'm still not sure which type this is psoratic beacause of my hands and feet or AS beacause of my hips and the narrowing of the si joints and the problems in my spine neck and shoulders.Any opinions?
Rick

Hi Rick and welcome to KA!

I'm glad you found us and hope that things start smoothing out for you soon. Have they looked into Enbrel for you?

Hugs,

Kat


"I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."- Thomas Edison

Hi Rick and Welcome to KA!

A dx of Psoriatic Spondylothropathy makes sense. It's AS's closest relative. Sorry to hear it's progression is so rapid, and hope your meds will have some immediate effect.

Your post caught my attention, as I've had chronic iritis for quite a long time and wanted to make sure you knew how serious it is, and to take the steroid eye drops religiously as instructed to prevent any loss of vision. Your eyes should be checked by an Opthalmologist right away (if you haven't already had the referral), as most gp's are not qualified enough in this area to make sure you are looked after properly.

Take care,

mig

Hi, yes I understand about the opthamoigest and have an app. in 2 wks thanks for the heads up, as I said this is a great place for getting informed. Right now I am try to educate myself about a lot of different things to do with these two types of arthritis. There are so many symtoms that I mistook or ignored.I was a sheetmetal worker in a shipyard, the aches and pains I chalked up to being 48 and the type of career I choose, now I am find it's my own system turning on itself, it's the first time in my life I don't feel in control.
Rick

Hi Rick
A very warm Welcome to KickAs.
I am a new member myself and am still amazed at the warm-heartedness of everyone. It does come as a shock to us all when we are first diagnosed with AS. It's the last thing in the world that you'd think of having. I still can't believe the number of people all over the world who have this.Take care and I hope things start to improve for you soon.
Love
Sue

Hi Kat
What a good idea. I will try to access my mum's medical records, although I'm not sure whether anything will show up with regards AS. The arthritis that she was diagnosed with was only seen by her GP the one time, and she never went back to the doctor again. He was only called out whenever she had a mini-stroke. I know that it is easy to think "where are all these diseases coming from". They were never heard of at one time, although they were medically known. When I first started with all this I wondered if I had motor neurone disease as my dad had that, but I know that is not genetic. It is familial though as my dad's cousin has just started with that at 80yrs old. What an age to start with that! I count my blessings many a time.
Take care,
Love
Sue

Hi again Rick,

Just wanted to say that 2 weeks is too long. I realise you are already treating yourself with steroid drops, but this is considered an opthalmological emergency and most good eye doc's should squeeze you in the same day or next day at latest. Mine said "how fast can you drive here" the 1st time I had it. If you phone and say your gp feels you have iritis they might want to see you right away.

I don't mean to scare you, but if it were me I would even go into an emergency dept at nearest hospital and get some quick medical attention for this asap. If your gp is right then in 2 weeks you could be in a serious state that takes longer to recover from. Not all cases are the same but this dreaded iritis can rocket out of control in a big hurry.

I wish you the best!

mig