Saturday, May 21, 2005

New disease

Well, my gammy bones (at least in my hands) have finally come out of the closet. Apparently I've got Psoriatic Arthritis (PA). I wasn't even sure I had psoriasis, but there you go. Two fingers on my right hand are like little fat sausages and extremely painful at times, and as you may have read before, my feet are regulalry sore. Doc blood tested me to the hilt, put me on regular anti-inflammatories (I was taking about 8 ibuprofen a day anyway) and referred me to a rheumatologist. They said it's PA and said they'd see me again in 8 weeks. After 8 weeks they said the anti-inflammatories weren't working and I should try a new treatment. Sodium Methotrexate (SM). Hmmmm..... not impressed. SM is basically chemotherapy, and at 45 I don't fancy taking something that might help but runs the risk of making me sick, breathless, have rashes and lose hair (and those are only the headline side effects!!!!) for the rest of my life (coward). Saw my GP again and I've decided to stick with the anti-inflammatories for the moment. If it gets really bad, I'll consider the SM again. I'll let you know how I get on.

No comments: