So glad you and your girl are okay Img...
I wrote a long post and then got a work call yesterday and hadn't quite finished and then closed the browser without remembering I hadn't posted it. Well aside from thoughts on mortality which I feel a little too fragile to think on too much at the moment (I'm visiting my dad who is near death and suffering, it shakes me up a lot), I went to the doctor yesterday. I've been feeling wrist pain for months, it also goes up the side of my arm. I also have some toe joint pain which I've had for years, and random pains that come and go in my joints, mostly shoulders. I also have psoriasis on my skin quite a lot, it's gotten slowly worse. Anyway, recently my wrist started hurting when I play and since I'm a musician this freaked me out enough to finally go to a joint specialist.
So I got in there, and the doctor started moving my arm and wrist around trying to find out where it hurts. Then she noticed my psoriasis, and my fingernails. Now, for a few years I ave had what I originally thought was psoriasis spots under my fingernails that appear at the base and slowly grow out. But then various people including a different doctor told me it looked like nail fungus. I've tried some things to get rid of it but I never can. The doctor yesterday told me that it looks just like the first warning sign of psoriatic arthritis. Basically psoriasis in the joints. It can become quite debilitating. They took some blood and I'm anxiously awaiting the lab results. She said she could be wrong but it really looks like that and would explain the joint pain too. She said there are some treatment options. The first one we'd try would be an oral anti-inflammatory. Not sure what the other options are. I know the last-ditch one which I basically would refuse unless it got so bad I couldn't live a normal life... it's a monthly injection that lowers your immune system (psoriasis is an inflammatory auto-immune response gone out of control). But you get sick more often and it substantially increases your chances of getting cancer and other diseases.
I asked her if there are any dietary things I could do, and she said yeah, avoid inflammatory foods. Especially gluten as there has been a lot of study done on it increasing inflammation in the body. Also cheese/dairy. I eat a lot of bread and I love it... it's gonna be hard to change. I also drink a lot of beer but I already know I shouldn't do that. So I'm gonna give it a try. Interestingly, my cousin was telling me a couple of years ago that I should go gluten-free because she had psoriasis and stopped consuming any gluten and it went away completely.
Well, the doctor stuck a massive needle into the middle of my wrist and injected a steroid... I absolutely hate needles, and I broke out in a cold sweat and almost threw up and then almost passed out. I can't even describe how much I hate the sight and especially the feeling of needles penetrating my body and then staying in there... god it's so repulsive. Then when they took my blood in the lab, the nurse overshot and stabbed me and I have a bruised inner arm. 2 needles in one day.
And I got a wrist brace to wear whenever I don't need full wrist mobility. She wants to see me again in 3 weeks. I guess in a week or so I'll know if it's psoriatic arthritis or not.
Anyway I feel a little less fucked up about this today but I'm scared... psoriatic arthritis is no joke. My psoriasis has been getting worse and worse too. And the fingernail thing appeared around the same time as I started getting my strange left big toe joint pain.