I've had a second visit with my newest rheumatologist, and I think this one's a keeper. My first had me under the "unspecified inflammatory arthropathy" label. She put me on prednisone, MTX and its little friends, Humira, which I couldn't tolerate, and then Enbrel. A month into the Enbrel she referred me to the rheumatology clinic at the nearby university, then suddenly closed her practice, messing up my Enbrel prescription on the way out. The university was a long wait, then a nightmare. Months later, got in with the new doctor.

She was positive, about 2 minutes after I walked in, that I have a screaming case of psoriatic arthritis. Makes sense to me: I have a 20-year history of psoriasis. Her mindset is that if a patient shows up with psoriasis and joint pain, the difficulty would be in proving it's NOT PsA. The damage in my lower back, visible on xrays, is more proof, as I guess that is much more of a PsA/AS (anklyosing spondylitis) thing than an RA phenomenon.

So, it's back on the Enbrel to see if it does any good. I wasn't too impressed with it before, but that was only for four weeks. Among other reasons, she says my insurance company- and don't we just love them being part of the decision- wouldn't approve anything else without giving Enbrel a good try first. The hope is that I can lower or get off the MTX and prednisone. I'd love to have both of those out of my life.

Even though I seem to NOT have RA, do y'all mind if I continue to hang out here? DS doesn't have a PsA group, the two diseases have more similarities than differences, and you are all just such a swell group of people!