Hello

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I'm new to the group and new to P & PA. I had my first outbreak of P

last year, went away with some topical treatments and that was that,

never gave it a thought again.

I've had joint pain & stiffness since I was about 21. I had alot of

things going on a Fever of Undetermined Origin, Liver function

abnormalities. The Rheumy I saw then (was not very good) tried to

rule out everything that was known at the time. I ended up on

prednisone (very high doses) for about 9 months. I've been seeing

better doctors since then. My longest lasting diag was CREST. I had

the Raynaunds and the Esph Reflux. My ANA titer for anti-centromere

were amazingly high.

Recently I woke up on a saturday morning and could not step on my

foot. My regular doc thought stress fracture, x-ray & MRI rulled out

stress fracture but did show marrow edema in two bones and edema

around the shafts of those bones. There was NO trauma to my foot at

all. Within about 4 days of this P started breaking out on that

foot, moving to my legs, torso, face, hands. I was having

significant joint pain in my shoulders, and wrists also.

Went back to the rheumy and we did the full inventory of tests, a

thourough exam and came up with PA. Which she said at least we could

do something about, if the CREST had gone to full scleroderma there's

not much to treat that.

Thank God my medical plan covers Humira like an ordinary Tier-3 drug

and does not require my doc to go through authorization. My first

shipment (3 mos worth) is due to arrive on Thursday, with my first

injection on Friday.

I must admit though reading the full prescribing info on Humira is

not the best thing to do. I think they listed just about every side

effect I could ever think of. We will see what happens.

I'm glad there is a group like this out here.

Joe

P.S. I'm from NJ