Pregnant With Psoriatic Arthritis: First Trimester

Although I find myself in psoriatic arthritis remission, for the most part, my plantar fasciitis pain has been a constant. Considering, when I was at my worst with psoriatic arthritis, I could barely bend my fingers into a fist or walk. I’ve come a long way in the past 9 years.

However, plantar fasciitis pain and subsequent inflammation have been my arch-nemesis. This explains how I missed waking up pain-free and didn't put two and two together that I could be pregnant.

Pain-free walking?

I didn’t put two and two together. In fact, I really didn’t believe I was pregnant. Two months prior, I underwent surgery in order to try to get pregnant. So, for a few blissful days at the end of last November, I walked around clueless and pain-free. It was great.

I know there are a lot of people who talk about humidity helping their psoriatic arthritis. On the contrary, I’ve always been the opposite, hot weather and humidity make it so hard for my body. I honestly thought my injectable biologic and the freshly crisp Florida air lacking humidity was the culprit.

A positive test

Even after clocking in a few miles walking an outdoor plaza in the lovely fall air, I still felt good. Normally, even if I started out having a good day, walking a few miles would put me out of commission. The pain and swelling usually last a day or two. Ice and elevation have always been my friends.

At any rate, this did not happen. I woke up the next day and felt pretty good. The following day, we had plans to visit family in our bubble. I also knew there was a possibility of alcohol with dinner, so I took a test. I wasn’t expecting a positive, but it felt like the responsible thing to do. Three tests later, we were happily surprised.

Feeling like my old self

The surprises kept coming for all of the first trimester. All of my usual aches and pains from psoriatic arthritis were non-existent. I felt, almost, like my old self for the first time in over 9 years. Well, minus having a passenger along for the ride.

One thing that unfortunately did not leave during the first trimester, was brain fog. Another thing was fatigue. Psoriatic arthritis brain fog and fatigue are two manifestations that many of us with PsA deal with on a regular basis. However, I was not prepared for how much harsher the fatigue and brain fog would become.

The impact of fatigue & brain fog

I found myself needing a nap in the morning and again in the afternoon. By evening time, I felt exhausted and kept falling asleep before my usual bedtime. As if the fatigue wasn’t bad enough, the brain fog caused a pretty embarrassing situation.

After grocery shopping, I couldn’t find my purse in the car and ran inside the house to look for it. Apparently, I left the car door open. This took place around 3PM. Around 9PM that evening, we heard a knock on the door and then the doorbell. It was our next-door neighbor. I opened the door panicking thinking she wasn't okay!

"Are you okay?" I asked. She said the same thing at the same time. My car door was still open. I left it open for over six hours. Amazingly, we didn't find anything missing and we didn't find any creatures in the car.

The majority of the first trimester went exactly like that. So, aside from a lack of basic memory skills and severe chronic fatigue, I had zero pain complaints. I just wish I could say the same about the second trimester. Stay tuned!