4 Symptoms I Experience With PSA and How They Affect My Life

By Alisha B

2 min read

The many different symptoms of PsA can impact each body differently. At this moment, I only deal with a mild case of PsA. However, I've been dealing with pain in my right knee since I was a teenager, never associating it with being a symptom of my PsA.

I assumed it was normal joint issues, mainly since I lived in Michigan, where temperatures can fall below zero and impact the body.

Start a Forum

What PsA symptoms impact my life the most

Here are the symptoms I deal with when I'm having a PsA flare, how it impacts my life, and how I deal with it.

Fatigue

No matter how much sleep I get the day before, I'm always ready for a nap at some point the next day. Fatigue is my most active symptom of PsA on any given even day. The worse my flare is, the worse the fatigue. This impacts my life by making me feel unmotivated and sluggish.

Some days, I just want to lie and rest. This feeling is typically worst after rigorous exercise. Also, a flare-up causes me to lose sleep because I can't rest due to the constant itching all over my body.

Studies show a change in diet can help decrease fatigue. When I eat better, I do notice that I tend to have more energy, but I have not kept actual notes to prove this is true for me.

Nail changes

My nails are always weak, brittle, and ridged, which is a symptom of PsA. Due to the challenges my nails face from the impact of PsA, they don't grow very fast, and if they do, they break easily.

Other symptoms can include pitting and separation from the nail and the nail bed. I keep my nails short and filed down. Sometimes, I will wear artificial nails, which extend the length of my natural nails.

While this option can be a way for women to protect their nails, if you aren't careful when removing the acrylic, it can cause additional harm to your nails.

Swollen fingers

When one of my injections started to fail, PsA hit me pretty hard. I began experiencing swelling in the pinky and ring finger every morning, warm to the touch.

The pain would wake me up every morning and fade away as the day went on. Once I switched to the new medicine, the swelling in the morning subsided.

Tight tendons

If it's cold outside, I am guaranteed to wake up in the morning with a tight yet throbbing pull in my inner thigh. If tight tendons are active, it typically makes my inner thigh feel tight and stiff.

As the day goes on, this tightness typically subsides. The more active I am with exercise, the less I tend to have these issues.

Featured Forum

View all responses

Keep your symptoms in check

Other symptoms not mentioned here include reduced range of motion for joints, back and neck pain, and redness of joints. It's important to have these symptoms assessed to prevent irreversible damage.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, including the ones I mentioned for myself, it's time to make an appointment with your doctor. Preventing the pain is your best bet for staying ahead of PsA symptoms.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Psoriatic-Arthritis.com team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

Join the conversation

Please read our rules before commenting.

nonib2 Member
We sound like PsA twins. I'm also a Michigander and can say that two nights ago, pain in all my small joints woke me from sleep. Fatigue is my major complaint also; it is such a waste of time! The issue with finger- and toenails is another shared fact. And itching? Well, the soles of my feet and palms of my hands have about driven me mad but a couple months ago, I saw a new dermatologist who started me on a new dual-med topical that has stopped that (finally!) but he said he was more concerned about my joints than my skin and started me on Otezla when he learned I'd had a one-month trial run on Taltz and proved to be allergic to it. He said Taltz was his favorite med for folks like us. At any rate, food does impact my body quite vividly: blueberries and tart cherries (love those Montmorencies!) help with the joint and muscle inflammation at least as much as OTC pain med (which I'm reluctant to use very often). Some tomato sauces actually make me nauseated sick and flare the symptoms; seems brand specific though, as not all bother me. Because I also have celiac disease (and a lot of other autoimmune disorders) I rarely have pasta anyway, so no biggie. The more plain foods I select (and then spice up for flavor) the better I feel. Processed foods definitely bother me much of the time and I now rarely even purchase any. Getting chilled will literally send me to bed to get warm as cold makes me 'hit the wall' and going to bed necessary, not by choice either. Now about white potatoes (yellow, red too), they do not bother me. Although they're on almost all lists of foods to avoid if one has arthritis, potatoes are my old friend that I can eat when nothing else will settle or go down. I do try to eat them as cooked, refrigerated, and then reheated so they're a more resistant starch. Frankly, I stopped worrying about eating them and just use common sense on portion size. 
1. Lori.Foster Community Admin
 It sounds like you really know your body, <inline-mention username="nonib2" user-id="3300714"/>, which is awesome. Have you been on Otezla long? Is it helping at all? Wishing you the best! - Lori (Team Member)
Barbara K Member
Important to get adequate pain relief to remain active.
1. christine.laaksonen Community Admin
 <inline-mention username="Barbara K" user-id="4896239"/> absolutely! Having adequate pain relief would certainly make it easier to remain active. Are you finding your current pain relief options adequate? Can I ask what you find helpful? -- Warmly, Christine (Team Member)
Barbara K Member
Tylenol with Codeine allows me to get a decent night's sleep when I've had to much weight bearing activity ie food shopping yesterday. Hip replacement scheduled early September. Very fortunate to live on a lake as I can swim & kayak with little disomfort.