I am glad to hear you finally got a diagnosis. But I want to point out that I have RA and I have psoriatic nails. So if the Sulfasalazine is not enough press for more, and maybe a different diagnosis.

I do hope this is your magic bullet. And yes, nothing feels better than to get a real diagnosis, and to acknowledge it is not just "in your head."

Hi....I'm Jen and was thought to have one of the sero-negative spondyloarthropathies for several years as I had bad back pain and my blood work was negative. Eventually, it turned out to be Ra but psoriatic can be just as bad if not worse than Ra due to the back problems. My niece has PsA(my back turned out to be traumatic OA).

RA can affect the facet joints of the spine(the only synovial joints in the spine) but rarely does so but often attacks C1 and 2 for some strange reason. But these diseases like PsA do....why they are called spondyloarthropathies....that means "spine arthritis" but what they look for are bone spurs that fuse the lower spine together called syndesmophytes(regular osteoarthritis makes bone spurs called osteophytes). These syndesmophytes form on the front of the vertebrae and form bars of bone that fuse the vertebrae together. If not stopped, they cause the spine to fuse in a bent over state....important to stop this!

So sulfasalzine can help(I took that too) but make sure you drink lots of water....can give you kidney stones. My rheumy back then never told me until I got kidney stones so I had to stop the drug and stopped the rheumy too....that seemed like something huge to not tell a patient especially since I've had a history of kidney stones. So drink up!

My niece just started on Enbrel and has found good relief. So should sulfasalazine not help enough, know you have help in other drugs.

It's important that your doc get the correct diagnosis. RA eats into bone but PsA builds bone similar to osteoarthritis. Makes a difference. Lots of surgeries for OA that you can use but surgery for Ra is different as they have to do a synovectomy at the same time which stops Ra temporarily but the synovial membrane grows back. I now have RA in both of my replaced knees that were replaced due to OA and not RA but now have RA in them so now they hurt as much as my OA did prior to surgery. Can't win! At least with PsA, it's my understanding that once a joint is replaced, it stays fine.

So there is lots of hope in your future.

gentle hugs..........Jen

Marlene - I did not know that RA could cause nail changes... interesting. Considering I'm completely sero-negative in everything I'm happy to just be getting somewhere. Thank you for that tip, I'll keep in in my back pocket for sure.

51percent - Hi Jen! At first they were thinking spondylosis because of my back pain. And the X-Rays I had done showed degeneration in my SI joints but they couldn't see any inflammation. So my appt yesterday was to be a check up and I could ask for an MRI if I wanted to so we could look closer for inflammation since all of my labs are normal. So it was labeled as OA two months ago. Yesterday that changed and she is leaning back to some of the spondyloarthritis flavors. But the most pain I do have is my low back and mid back around my ribs with the pain in my hands and feet and knees etc being minor in comparison and more easily ignored or tolerated. I will definitely keep water near by while taking it as long as I'm cleared to take the sulfasalazine, my mom warned me it can make my pee orange so stay hydrated lol (she's a nurse). The doc did mention that if it didn't help enough we might look into biologics btu she wanted tos tart here and go slow since there aren't any blood tests for PsA aside from being negative in everything and presenting with some other things I have going on. The only things that worries me is that my father has pretty severe RA in both shoulders and never tested positive in his blood and has had surgery several times on each shoulder. But I'm just happy to finally be looking at treatment options other than taking pain pills and "dealing" with the pain.

Sally - thank you so much!!!! I'm so happy I could cry. I just want so much to try and go back to my normal self. It gets really depressing to look back on how life was just 2 short years ago compared to now with how much less active I've become because of all this crap...more so this year in particular.

thank you all for your support, it really does mean a lot to me.

Sara, I'm so happy to hear you were finally listened to and hopefully now something will be done to help you. I find myself in pretty much the same place. This year has been hell for me, especially the last few months. I don't ever feel good! I look out the window watching the world go by and wonder where my life went. Sigh....

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post. I'm just so happy to read that someone is getting help. It gives me hope that there's help for me out there, too.

Take care and keep us posted.

ohh Lizzy :( I really wish there was something I could do. I know the feeling though. I was fully prepared to throw a fit at the doctor office yesterday lmao. But I'm glad I didn't have to. Would have been quite the sight to see a 31 year odl throw a tantrum hahahahaha.

Have you shopped around for a different doctor? Or have you been through all of your local ones?

Yes, PsA causes nail bed problems as it's psoriasis of the nails.

Rosetears.....yes, hi again. PsA, for those who don't know, is part of a group of inflammatory arthritic disorders known as sero-negative spondyloarthropathies...meaning your blood work is always negative and you develop a very particular type of arthritis of the SI joints in the pelvis and the lower spine...but it can go all the way up the spine if not treated properly. The spinal arthritis has these syndesmophytes that be identified by x-rays or CT's or MRI's. And by negative blood work, I mean everything is negative.....sero-negative RA refers to blood work that has no specific RA blood work is negative like the rheumatoid factor or anti-CCP. But over time, you will develop a pattern of blood work with a high white cell count, anemia and a high ESR and elevated CRP. Can take years to develop but according to my doc, it eventually does....took me over 20 years to really show it but until I got a wrist MRI, they could not officially call it RA and allow the insurance company to pay for RA specific meds like biologics.

But that lack of anything positive is equally diagnostic of these disorders that includes Psoriatic and Ankylosing Spondylitis and Reactive Arthritis(used to be called Reiter's Syndrome) as well as STD induced arthritis. All of these can attack the eyes and heart so they are just as bad as RA. Bechets has similar symptoms and blood work but is a real killer as it causes aneurysms all over the body from weakening of the layers of the blood vessels. Don't think that because you don't have Ra, it isn't that bad...it can be worse if not treated.

So I'm glad your doc has done the work to figure out this puzzle and now can get you on proper treatment...And as I've said before, back in 1900, there was 2 forms of arthritis...OA and RA and by 2000 we had 100 forms and it is expected that by 2050, we'll have 200 forms...it's all about tests to identify the different types. Even RA will have different forms....TNF induced RA, T-cell induced Ra, B-cell induced, interleukin 1, 2 or 6 induced RA and the forms keep on going. Just need the tests to become sensitive enough to identify that very minute proteins in our blood. And even OA is getting more forms as they are currently testing for an inflammatory type of OA and an early onset form as well(I started getting OA as a kid but was it from child abuse or early onset...no one knows).

There is no board for PsA here (as far as I know) so you are welcome here.

hugs..........Jen

Jen - yes I've been reading more about PsA and I wasn't sure about how I should feel: angry it took almost 4 years to get a Dx from all the things I've been complaining about at Dr appts that go along with this, or relieved that it didn't take longer and I'm finally getting treatment finally. I'm leaning more towards just feeling relieved though considering the SI joint pain has been getting really bad.

And I hope I don't get kicked to the curb since I am now officially non RA! haha :) I really like this board.