Coincidences

[JesseLou]

It seems like the word coincidence appears a lot on the board, ie: my rheumy saying it was a coincidence that I got really high blood pressure within weeks of starting all my meds.

I'd like to compile a list of that kind of medical "coincidence", and how many times it occurs among the people who post here. Please tell us what happened coincidentally with your psoriasis and/or PA, even if someone else has already described the same thing.

[docmks]

It seems like the word coincidence appears a lot on the board, ie: my rheumy saying it was a coincidence that I got really high blood pressure within weeks of starting all my meds.

I'd like to compile a list of that kind of medical "coincidence", and how many times it occurs among the people who post here. Please tell us what happened coincidentally with your psoriasis and/or PA, even if someone else has already described the same thing.


Great post! I know I have heard it though I am not coming up with any good examples right now. But I generally follow what Sherlock Holmes said, "I don't believe in coincidences, Watson!"

I don't think for example that it was a coincidence that at the end of the semester where I had had absolutely the most stress in my life that I had my first combined flare of "skin" and "bones"-- Psoriasis appearing on my elbows and both thumbs become sore and stiff.

I am sure many people with recall what were called "coincidences" in terms of their P and PA as well.

Another good pair of lines: "You've probably always had it," or "It's probably always been that way."

[grannyfranny]

Getting worse right after starting a new med,,,,,,,,then the doc says stay on it a little longer,,,,,,and keep getting worse. Coincident,,,,,,I don't think so.

[krislin]

I am usually a lurker but this thread hit such a cord with me I just had to respond!

Despite the fact that my PA is fairly well under control, I continue to have a painful area over both greater trochanters that were originally diagnosed as bursitis from the PA. My hips are also mildly stiff in the AM and after any prolonged sitting. While my hips have improved immensely from the way they were before cortisone shots and MTX, I am still unable to sleep on my sides. Xrays don't show any bone damage and nothing is showing up on the MRIs done recently but of course they weren't done at the height of my discomfort either. Consequently my rheumy thinks my ongoing hip pain is now a chronic pain issue rather than a symptom of active PA.

I have however noticed that if I get an infection of any kind, I experience a short lived but significant decrease of discomfort in all my usual troublesome areas, including my hips. Personally I would expect "chronic pain" to increase rather than diminish when the body is enduring the extra stress of an infection. My theory is that my immune system gets busy attacking a real infection and stops attacking me for a short period until it starts getting the infection under control. My GP seemed willing to entertain this theory while my rheumy says it's just coincidence and still insists the hip issue is not due to PA.

So my next question to my rheumy is going to be
"Do coincidences keep repeating themselves?" I have experienced a finger infection, a sinus infection and shingles over the past 3 years and each time the exact same phenomenon has occurred. Even the start and stop timing of the diminished symptoms has become predictable. Logic tells me that the likelihood of this same coincidence occurring with precisely the same timeline 3 times is slim to nil. I remain convinced there has to be some inflammation in my hips that is being missed on the reading of the MRIs. But we all know that couldn't happen either, right? :rolleyes: