Newly diagnosed with PsA

Hi all. After years of chronic pain and fatigue, and about a year of testing and confusion, I was finally diagnosed as having PsA three days ago.

A little history: Years ago when I started experiencing lower back pain, I had an MRI that led to a diagnosis of Degenerative Disk Disease. My primary doctor referred me to a neurologist/spinal surgeon to see what could be done. Since the degeneration hadn’t progressed further than my lumbar spine, the surgeon said that surgery wasn’t a good option and that I should try massage (ok), PT (expensive), exercise (yeah right OUCH), Rx pain meds (opioids no thanks), or cortisone injections (big nope). Needless to say, I lived with the pain as best as I could.

Then last year things started to get worse. Not only was my back pain more pronounced and radiating further up my spine, but I also started having weird symptoms popping up—my fingertips were completely numb, my shoulders started hurting to the point I lost range of motion, my legs would feel like I had ice water droplets on them, and I started feeling full body aches like I had the flu.

Since I’m also Type 2, my primary was first concerned with neuropathy in my extremities. I had a nerve conduction study done on my hands which concluded that I had carpal tunnel in one hand but otherwise no other nerve damage. At the time my A1c was high but not too high, so my primary ordered a series of tests to check for rheumatoid factor, C-reactive protein, Lyme disease, and a few other things. All of these came back negative. He eventually referred me to a rheumatologist.

The rheum did the usual—asked me about my symptoms, checked pressure points, etc. He had me do the steroid test (I felt GREAT for five days), and ran bloodwork to check for inflammatory markers and the HLA B27 gene. The inflammatory markers came back negative, but the genetic test was POSITIVE!

When I went in this past week, I wasn’t expecting a diagnosis but I was floored when he said he was confident that I had PsA. So now I’m on Sulfasalazine and Celebrex.

I know it will take some time for the Sulfasalazine to kick in, but I was wondering if anyone could share their experience with this medication. So far my body seems to be tolerating it (aside from my immune system which is hell bent on fighting back if my sudden flare up today is any indication). Has anyone had that happen when starting this med? How long did it take for it to start working? Are there any strange side effects I should know about? Has anyone had any issues taking it with Type 2?

I know I have a lot of questions, but since I’m on a cocktail of other meds for diabetes, anxiety, and high BP I’m a little nervous adding two more to the mix.

K