Just starting the Dx journey.

First, aside from the painful, inflamed finger joint, what other symptoms/conditions do you suffer that lead you to conclude you have PsA? I'm not asking in order to cast doubt, but there are important distinctions that would guide treatment considerations. As for referrals, that is always going to depend upon your doctor; the country in which you reside, hence the medical care system native to where you live; and how well you are able to present your symptoms, i.e. be thorough in describing the type of pain, the hours of day, days of week, etc., and how often symptoms are exacerbated, and what things cause exacerbation. For tips, the aforementioned thorough description of your symptoms, and timeline of symptoms.

Thanks for the reply. my symptoms from head to toe, skin patches with scale that flare up(but only small approx. 1"😉 in scalp, abdomen, hand, elbows and legs at various times, regular bouts of scleritis, Nails with lines and pitting. Regular pain in Achilles and heels, painful flare ups in feet involving swelling, intense pain in tendons and unable to walk, the swelling and tendon pain has now developed in my left hand. There are some other things that appear to be related to psoriasis as well.
I'm in the UK, my GPs are very reluctant to refer for anything but if I have a well reasoned/researched arguement for a referral they tend to be a bit more willing.

Seems if they observe the symptoms you just stated, that should be enough. Scaly patches, pitted nails, achilles pain, and pain in the interphalanges is pretty much the tell. Took my doctor (at the US Veterans Administration Hospital) less than a minute to render his opinion and send me to rheumatology. Took rheumatologist less time than that to diagnose me.

, welcome to the community! We're glad you found us. I'm over in the UK too and can relate to the reluctancy of some GPs to make specialist referrals.

Eric offers some fantastic advice here. I would emphasise the length of time that you've been suffering with these symptoms. Sometimes GPs seem to want to "give it a couple of weeks" and see if whatever the issue is clears up. Something else to be prepared for - they may want to do blood tests and make the referral decision based on those. It's important to know that only around 50% of people with psoriatic arthritis have elevated inflammatory markers in their blood. So, whilst blood test results can be informative, they shouldn't be used as a reason to not refer someone for further investigation.

Here's an article which looks at common symptoms of psoriatic arthritis: https://psoriatic-arthritis.com/psa-symptoms Feel free to take this with you for some backup. Hoping you can get the referral and some answers. Please keep us posted if you can. Wishing you the very best, Brothy! -Catherine, Community Moderator