As this is my first blog I will copy others before me and begin by giving a bit of background as to how I got to where I am now.

I’m 52 years old and was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) 12 months ago. I had psoriasis on my scalp for many years but it wasn’t a big problem and I did nothing about it. Then, in 2005, I had a problem with my eye – uveitis – and my GP asked if I had any joint pains. At the time I didn’t. The uveitis recurred in May 2008 and cleared up pretty quickly with the use of steroid eye drops. Shortly after this I developed psoriasis on my arms and hands, my back and my legs and started to have pain and swelling in various joints in my hands and feet. Walking was very painful and when I was going up stairs I would stand at the bottom and will myself to take that first step, knowing it was going to be agony. I also had a stiff neck but it wasn’t really painful and I felt tired all the time. Every time I sat down I fell asleep.

Being a bit of a stubborn individual I didn’t immediately rush to my GP – I did what I’ve always done and thought that it would go away on its own. Big mistake! The pain in one joint would go away – but it always returned in another joint and the tiredness got worse and so I decided, reluctantly if I’m honest, to visit my GP. He gave me Diclofenac for the inflammation and Dovobet ointment for the psoriasis. This helped to some extent but the next time I saw him a week later he sent me for blood tests and X-rays. The following day the surgery called me at work and said that the GP wanted to see me. I said that I had an appointment in 2 weeks and the receptionist said ‘No, he wants to see you now. Is 20 minutes OK?’ I can’t tell you how much I panicked! Anyway, it turned out that the ESR was very high and I was also very anaemic and an appointment was made for me to see a rheumatologist 2 weeks later. How’s that for service from the NHS! I was impressed!

The rheumatologist sent me for more blood tests and more X-rays and gave me a short course of steroids as I was going away on holiday the following day. I started taking them and within days I felt great! I hadn’t felt so well for ages and it certainly helped me to have a good holiday, although there were lots of things I still couldn’t do. I saw him again when I came back and he started me on sulphasalazine. Unfortunately, after 6 weeks I had to stop taking it as it was reacting with my liver. Another 6 weeks to get it out of my system and then in January this year I started on methotrexate. I’ve heard people say how concerned they are at taking it because of the side effects. I have to say, I haven’t suffered any side effects. Readers will probably know that you should limit alcohol intake while taking it – I decided that, because of the problems I had with sulphasalazine, I didn’t want to take any chances and so have stopped having alcohol at all. I was never a big drinker anyway and it almost seems easier than having to think about how many units you might have had!

At around the same time as starting methotrexate I was signed off sick from work. I have a very busy and stressful job and work long hours and had been finding it harder and harder to cope. I was constantly in pain and felt exhausted the whole time – my whole life was working and sleeping. There was no energy left for anything else. Unfortunately the methotrexate didn’t really help too much and in March I began what felt like a tortuous process of being assessed for anti-TNF drugs. This was finally agreed in May and I started on enbrel (etanercept) in the middle of June. I’m still taking methotrexate and diclofenac and co-codamol for the pain (although it doesn’t really control it very well). In the meantime I have seen a podiatrist because my right foot is causing me problems and I’m waiting for insoles to arrive which should apparently support my feet better – I suspect the challenge will be in finding a pair of shoes that doesn’t make me feel even older than I do already! More on that in my next blog!

So, here we are, 7 weeks in to self administering my enbrel injection every week – and that has caused me no problem at all, despite having imagined how awful it was going to be! I can’t say I’m feeling much better. I still have lots of painful, swollen joints and I am still tired and can’t walk too far because my feet are causing problems. And now my neck hurts as well! I did tentatively say to my GP last week that I thought that perhaps my hands were slightly less swollen but he looked at them and said ‘But they’re still very swollen’ So much for trying to be positive! I’m still not at work but continue to do what I can to keep active – and I’ve read loads of very good books that I would never have had time to read otherwise!

I’m sorry that this is so long – it’s taken me ages to write it as I can’t type for long without my neck and my hands hurting. My next blog will be much shorter I promise but I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my story so far – particularly those of you with PsA. I look forward to reading your comments.