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Second opinion - PsA

Posted , 3 users are following.

Guest
Guest

Hi. Just at a loss and need some advice. 

I have been diagnosed with some kind of "inflammatory arthritis", confirmed by scans, but negative antibody tests. I have mostly pain and mild swelling in the small joints of my hands and feet, wrists; plus back, hip and SI joint pain.

I have some minor nail pitting and horizontal ridges in my thumb and big toes. I'm taking hydroxychloroquine. 

Just over a year ago I noticed some weird pinkish-brown spots appear on my back. I finally got a GP to look at them because I thought they might hold a clue to what is going on elsewhere. He said they were just freckles. I am not medically qualified and I don't want to seem hypochondriacal but I am just not convinced. Here's why:

1. They are slightly raised

2. They appeared in the winter, on a part of my body that is never exposed to the sun

3. Some of them have a flaky film which kind of scrapes off

4. They just don't look like freckles to me.

They don't bother me (apart from being ugly) but I would really like to know if there is more to them. In short, I wonder if it's some kind of cutaneous condition (psoriasis or something else) that might help explain my other problems.

I had a year of rheumatologists telling me I didn't have arthritis because my blood tests were negative. Scans proved them wrong. I have moved more towards trusting my own instincts because doctors have been spectacularly unhelpful.

Does anybody have any advice, any opinions, any experience, they could share that might help me? You can tell me that I'm being an idiot and they're just freckles, too, if you like. 

Thank you.

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • connie28112
    connie28112 Guest

    Posted

    As a freckled redhead, these do not look like freckles to me.  You are correct - freckles are smooth, not raised.  It may be nothing...  It may be a sign of psoriatic arthritis or some other under

    ying disease.   Trust your instincts! In any event, I would request a consultation with a dermatologist.  I have autoimmune with no inflammatory markers but visual /discernable inflammation in many of my joints and tendons.  So blood markers are not always reliable.

    • Guest
      Guest connie28112

      Posted

      Thanks. Now future doctors will glance at my medical records and see that I'm apparently the kind of person who visits their GP because they have "freckles". That'll help!

  • justinh
    justinh Guest

    Posted

    It sounds like psoriatic arthritis to me: arthritis with no rheumatoid factor, pitting, and probably psoriasis. For me that is worst the winter. Get some sun on it.

    Tell your rheumatologist that you think you have psoriatic arthritis and it won't be long until he will be congratulating himself on making the diagnosis. But that's okay.

    • Guest
      Guest justinh

      Posted

      Ha ha - thanks for making me smile on a dreary Monday.

      The hospital once booked me into the wrong clinic and I accidentally saw a rheumatologist who was a something of a psoriatic arthritis wiz - he started to go down the possible PsA route. Sadly he had to send me back to my regular rheumatologist, whose area of expertise I have been unable to determine. 

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