I am posting on the RA sight as most people use this. I was diagnosed with PA 2 years ago and finally gave in to the idea of starting MTX, went to see my consultant yesterday (new one) and she says i have fibro instead! as blood tests came back negative for the second time, has anyone else had this problem? Just started to claim disability, so am worried i will have to start the process from scratch, will i still be able to claim?
If anyone has had the same please reply.
Sallyak.
xx
Hello, my Rheumatologist told me that there is no definitive test for PA. He tends to think that is what I have but does put RA on all of the paperwork for now. There is also Sero-Negative RA so there is a lot more to it than blood tests.
I file for SSDI a little over 2 years ago and all of my blood tests are negative but just looking at my hands it is obvious that I have RA or PA. I am at the Hearing stage, lol.
Good luck.
The only help I got for my dx of PA is that I had a large outbreak of psoriasis on my head at the time. I also have the genetic marker. Do you have someone in the family that has psoriasis? If so, then it is a likely possibility. RD's don't like to deal with PA, because it is very hard to treat and get any sort of remission. My RF was high but not high enough and that is the same story with the test for Lupus.
Sorry, but if you do have PA...I am hoping you have an extra patience gene as well.
Thanx Shelly and Bonny for your replys, i come from the uk and here the consultants will not routinely screen for any markers, no MRI's either. What is sero-negative?
I have had psoriosis on my head and nails for about 5 years, my mum,sister and brother suffer from severe psoriosis but no PA, my mum has RA but because i did not have any swellings when i went i was told i may have had PA but not now!!!
Unfortunately our NHS service will not carry out any (what they call) unnecessary tests!
I presume SSDI is the same as our DLA (disability living allowance).
Thanx again for replying so fast
sallyak xx
So, do your joints hurt? You can have PA and not have what is typical for swelling. I did for three years. I had small swelling and then the joint pain would remain. In PA the joints do hurt all the way to the ends of your fingers too, and also the toes. Keep an eye out for that, and of course the inflamation markers. The psoriasis does need to be treated, and it can be treated by the RD or a dermatologist. I know about unnessary testing and such...I think I lucked out because there was something way wrong, and we did not know what. I had about twenty vials of blood for every AI disease there is I think! It was a whole lot, but we finally found it and it matches completely.
Did your mom's RF come back positive. I believe Sero-Negative is when you test negative for RA in your blood, but there is no doubt with swelling and joint pain and inflamation markers that you have it.
Hope this helps, but I would venture to say that you do have PA in its early stages.