Long Road
I've had back trouble since I was 20, but just worked through it. Right after I was married in 1993, I began breaking out in what we thought were hives. With 6 months of prednisone and allergy shots, the hives went away. The back pain did not.
Back pain beginning to worsen
I had an accident at work and hurt my lower back, making my back pain worse. I began going to doctors to see why my back pain was so bad. For the next 10 years, I went to multiple doctors, 6 MRIs, a bone scan, and chiropractors. I was beginning to have problems walking and lost the feeling in my hands. I was told the discs in my neck were swollen and I had neck surgery. Through all of this, the pain never got better and I was taking 24 Advil a day.
Finally getting a PsA diagnosis
In 2008, my hives/rash came back and my doctor thought it was psoriasis and thought my back pain might be related, so they sent me to a rheumatologist. A month later, I was on Remicade, pain pills, and methotrexate. Although my dosages have increased, I have been having much less pain over these last 16 years. Of course the disease has progressed, but not nearly as fast as it did those first 15 years, but at least hope has been restored and life has been better. The moral of the story is even though ups and downs happen, keep going through the downs because the ups are worth it.
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