"Hi everyone, this is my first post and though I'm very sorry you are all out there, I am quite excited to find others like me, to talk with. I am 52 years old and been in quite severe pain on and off most of my life. My journey has been very frustrating and I have only just been diagnosed with PsA. It is strangely relieving to at last have a name for it. I'm having a flare up at the moment and its probably as bad as I've been so far. The pain in my feet, toes, heels and knees is excruciating to say the least. I'm having patches throughout the day when I can't walk because of the pain and my golly some very strange noises escape from my mouth. My hips and fingers are not as sore as my lower body today, which I'm looking at as a bonus. I'd love to hear any little tips anyone has for pain control, I haven't found a painkiller that will even take the edge off it. I have started prednisolone and will start Arava for the first time in a couple of weeks. I feel as though I am a stronger person and have a very high pain tolerance but I am feeling quite sooky at the moment because I really can hardly bare the pain. Does everyone have extreme over the top pain with this. It's very hard to explain to even the local GP how bad the pain is. Is this normal or have I gone soft?"