Health Boards
Mon-18-11-2019, 18:41 PM
Okay, update time.
I will have to say that I thought things were improving. But this past week things seem to be sliding backwards a bit. I've had a couple new spots appear and along the hairline seems a bit worse this week, still perhaps a bit better than when I started the laser therapy though. I've reached the point where I should be seeing improvement. I will continue through this month but if things don't improve, then I'm going to call it a fail.
Saw the rheumatologist today. He said in his opinion I have early signs of psoriatic arthritis and that if I ignore those signs and just try to treat the skin, it would be a mistake. So, he recommends that I try Humira.
I'm not really wanting to try a TNF inhibitor. Honestly they scare me. He said he cannot say to ignore their warnings, but in all his years treating people with biologics, he knows of only a couple of cases where the patients were diagnosed with skin cancer (and had to have spots removed) but he knew one of those had a history of sun worshipping so couldn't say that it wouldn't have occurred anyway. He said although they list heart issues, he has never treated anyone to his knowledge that ever had those issues but that of course he wasn't saying it couldn't be a problem. The warnings are there for a reason. (As you and I know, mostly to protect the company from lawsuits, but I'm sure they don't want to list anything they don't feel they have to) So.... I told him I would discuss it with my other doctors (primary, heart and pulmonologist) before making a decision. Since my insurance will change first of the year, we both agreed that it would be best to hold off to then anyway as I would barely get approval before my insurance changed and treatment could be interrupted while getting approval from my new insurance. (So as not to confuse anyone, we live in the US. Although insurance is renewed every year, usually the coverage doesn't change but this year it will for us, not going into who, what, where, why as it's boring and you don't really care
but didn't want you all to think insurance changes every year here for everyone)
Basically nothing new to report. I'll let you know near the end of the month if the laser treatments start to improve anything or if I'm done with them. And then we'll see what the new year brings as far as other treatments go.
Edit to clarify: I have some issues that make me not want to try a TNF inhibitor. I'm not sure if I should be worried about them or not which is why I want to check with my other doctors. If I were totally healthy, I'd probably feel quite a bit different about it. I didn't want it to sound like I think TNF inhibitors are bad, I simply don't know if it's something I should try.
I will have to say that I thought things were improving. But this past week things seem to be sliding backwards a bit. I've had a couple new spots appear and along the hairline seems a bit worse this week, still perhaps a bit better than when I started the laser therapy though. I've reached the point where I should be seeing improvement. I will continue through this month but if things don't improve, then I'm going to call it a fail.
Saw the rheumatologist today. He said in his opinion I have early signs of psoriatic arthritis and that if I ignore those signs and just try to treat the skin, it would be a mistake. So, he recommends that I try Humira.
I'm not really wanting to try a TNF inhibitor. Honestly they scare me. He said he cannot say to ignore their warnings, but in all his years treating people with biologics, he knows of only a couple of cases where the patients were diagnosed with skin cancer (and had to have spots removed) but he knew one of those had a history of sun worshipping so couldn't say that it wouldn't have occurred anyway. He said although they list heart issues, he has never treated anyone to his knowledge that ever had those issues but that of course he wasn't saying it couldn't be a problem. The warnings are there for a reason. (As you and I know, mostly to protect the company from lawsuits, but I'm sure they don't want to list anything they don't feel they have to) So.... I told him I would discuss it with my other doctors (primary, heart and pulmonologist) before making a decision. Since my insurance will change first of the year, we both agreed that it would be best to hold off to then anyway as I would barely get approval before my insurance changed and treatment could be interrupted while getting approval from my new insurance. (So as not to confuse anyone, we live in the US. Although insurance is renewed every year, usually the coverage doesn't change but this year it will for us, not going into who, what, where, why as it's boring and you don't really care
but didn't want you all to think insurance changes every year here for everyone)Basically nothing new to report. I'll let you know near the end of the month if the laser treatments start to improve anything or if I'm done with them. And then we'll see what the new year brings as far as other treatments go.
Edit to clarify: I have some issues that make me not want to try a TNF inhibitor. I'm not sure if I should be worried about them or not which is why I want to check with my other doctors. If I were totally healthy, I'd probably feel quite a bit different about it. I didn't want it to sound like I think TNF inhibitors are bad, I simply don't know if it's something I should try.