When A New Diagnosis Means More Pain

One thing that we all know, is the pain that is associated with psoriatic arthritis. I have had psoriatic arthritis for the past seven years.

My pain is mostly centered in my lower back although occasionally pain will pop up in my right hip and knees.

New pain, new diagnosis

Constant pain occurs almost daily. The back pain keeps me from doing the simplest of things like washing a sink of dishes. I play a constant game of standing to wash a sink load and then sitting in my chair until the pain goes away.

I have gotten as used to the pain as is humanly possible. Just when you think you have gotten used to the daily grind of pain along comes a new diagnosis that gives you even more pain to have to contend with.

Seeing my doctor for pain

For the past several weeks I have been experiencing pain in my right lower part of my stomach. My first thought turned to appendicitis. However, I did not have the classic signs of appendicitis. I waited until the next morning and went to my primary care provider.

Her first instinct was to dismiss the pain. However, after some explanations of the symptoms, her attention got serious. After a couple of tests, the diagnosis was ulcerative colitis. It turns out that colitis and Crohn's disease are comorbidities of psoriatic arthritis.

It turns out if you have both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis it puts you at even greater odds of getting inflammatory bowel disease.

What is ulcerative colitis?

Like learning about psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, I had to learn about ulcerative colitis or UC as it is called. Ulcerative colitis means the lining of your intestines is irritated. The symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, and stomach pain. Sounds like a good time right?

There is a lot more to it but I won't go into all on here. If you are interested you can research it but beware it comes with some pretty scary information. So why would I want to share it with you? Well as I said it is a comorbidity of psoriatic arthritis. Arthritis puts pressure on your body causing irritation. I am now waiting on colonoscopy to confirm the diagnosis.

Sympathy pains

So now that you have a little bit better understanding of what I am dealing with, I am sure you can sympathize with having additional pain? Like it wasn't hard enough having psoriatic arthritis, now my stomach constantly hurting now just makes me want to curl into a fetal position.

However, if I was to do that, then I am going to suffer more. Making psoriatic pain worse. It feels like a lose, lose proposition. The worse part of it all is just like psoriatic arthritis there is no cure for ulcerative colitis. It can be managed but at this time it cannot be cured.

My future with PsA & UC

One of the things I have always struggled with in having psoriatic arthritis is progression. I have silently worried about it for years now. None of us can see into the future to know the answer to that. Now comes ulcerative colitis which means more flares of pain.

I know the old saying that what does not kill us makes us stronger but that honestly, sometimes just seems to overwhelm me. This is one of those times. I guess because it is so new to me I am really struggling.

Psoriatic arthritis already meant a life-changing situation for me. If you happen to be reading this and live with both UC and psoriatic arthritis, I will greatly appreciate any advice you can send my way. After all, we are all in this together.