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JBN3
03-25-2003, 07:11 AM
Hey there! New to the board. Found some great info from the site and forums here.

Little history: Now 30, had P in my scalp when I was 10-15 years old or so. Went away for years until I got some "warts" burnt off of my elbows about 8-10 years ago, well that was a bad idea and I suspect it was P all along and the burning made it come back full force. Mainly on elbows, knees, and lower legs. I would consider the P mild to moderate. I can handle that and have had decent success keeping it under control with Dovonex ointment.

For the last 2-3 years I have had on and off foot and ankle, lower back, and knee problems. I had weighed close to 300 lbs when I got out of school and attributed it to the weight and the exercise (jumping rope) to lose the weight, now around 240-250lbs. Went to a chiropractor and that helped the back pain. The ankle/foot pain had also been moderate to severe but went away in a day or two. I thought it was a pair of shoes or an activity that made the pain flare up, I have been trying to pinpoint the cause, constantly analyzing everything I was doing before a flare up.

Since the first of this year (2003) it has been a more constant pain in my right ankle/foot. I went to the doctor (GP) and he thought it was possibly gout (which I have a family history of gout) or a stress fracture in my foot. Just last week I heard about PA and started looking into the symptoms and the more I read, the more things sounded familiar (fatigue, achilles tendon pain, tightness, worse in the morning, etc, etc, etc.). Now the ankle/foot pain is pretty severe. I have trouble sleeping many nights. It feels like the pain is radiating from my ankle all the way up my leg to my lower back. Really quite miserable right now.

I went to my derm yesterday and talked to him about my symptoms and he said I sounded like a textbook case of PA (if there is such a thing). He enrolled me in the Enbrel program and said it should take around 3 weeks to get the drugs. At this point, I don't care if he prescribes me crack cocaine as long as the pain subsides and I get some decent sleep.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any suggestions? I have been taking some advil to try to keep the pain down, which works ok. I tried Aleeve also which didn’t do anything for me. I went back on Indomethacin/Indocin (prescribed by my GP Dr) this morning to see if that helps. I can deal with the P, but PA SUCKS! Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts, anything? Thanks in advance for anything...

heps
03-25-2003, 02:49 PM
JBN3 -

:( Sorry that you hurt so much. I don't have PA but I do have P, Gout,
Arthritis, fibromyalgia & a ruptured disc. I doubt that you have Gout cause
when you have Gout, it is generally in your great (big) toe, swollen & purplish in color. The doctor can verify if it's Gout from a blood test to see how high your Uric acid is. Is the pain radiating up your leg to your lower back or is it radiating down the back of your leg from your lower back If it's DOWN the back of your leg, it could be a disc problem. Both of these are extremely painful. Sorry I can't help you with the PA symptoms. Of course it very well could be PA but since I do not have it I can't give you first hand experience like I can with the others I mentioned above. Hope you find the correct diagnosis for what you have so that you can have it treated properly. Good Luck.

HEPS/Helen

JesseLou
03-25-2003, 04:05 PM
It would be a good idea to see a rheumalogist. If you have x-rays, bring them with you.

I think I read somewhere that gout symptoms are sometimes really PA.

lapradef
03-25-2003, 05:11 PM
Hi, JBN3 --

I think Helen is right about gout. Pretty simple to determine if the level of uric acid is elevated.

The thing that doesn't strike me as "textbook" about your symptoms is that it doesn't seem to be symetrical or bilateral (if I read your post correctly, the problem is in your right ankle but not the left?) I'm certainly no expert, but I've read that one hallmark of systemic forms of arthritis, RA, PA, etc. is that it strikes both sides of the body at once. I know my PA did, mainly in the hands -- right, left, right, left, until, in just a couple of weeks, all the fingers on both hands were involved.

You might want to check out plantar fasciitis. It's not primarily an ankle problem, but I'm gradually getting over a case of PF, and I have some soreness in the ankles. Probably from "walking funny" and perhaps from some underlying PA.

This get complicated, doesn't it?

Best wishes and welcome to the board --

GL

//////

anne kennedy
03-28-2003, 04:37 PM
i suggest you get to rhuemy right away....
i have pa and i have bad ankle pain in right foot....
left foot has toes hurting and joints going bad....
also the bottom of the foot is painful all the time....
you just may have pa....
this is happening rapidly.....
best shoes:berkenstocks:ugly but worth every penny.

p.s. too tired to edit