Question:
I just can't seem to catch a break. I saw thedermatologist today for a rash that has been coming and going in my arm pitsfor the past two weeks. I had showed it to my primary care doctor whothought it was yeast and gave me a cream for it. Well, that cream made itworse, doubling in size every day. They are almost identical in shape andsize in each armpit!

the dr said, have I ever had psoriasis before? What do you meanbefore? He thinks that's what this is with perhaps a secondary fungalinfection setting in as well. He did scrapings and sent it off to becultured. He gave me a cream and some pills and said he'd call me when theresults come in. Will a culture show whether or not it is psoriasis?

So ..... I went online to read about Psoriatic Arthritis and looked at somepictures of the what it looks like. My rash was very red to begin and thenwas beginning to get a little scaly and crusty, like the pictures. Hasanyone here with PA every had it in their armpits? Do you get the P in PAsymmetrically like you do the joint pain in RA? Could this be why my jointsget red and itch like crazy when I start to flare?

Answer: There is a picture there of a type of psoriasis that is exactly what myunderarms look like! It's calledinverse or flexural psoriasis. Mine just hasn't yet spread quite as far atthe person in the picture. Can you get ANY type of psoriasis with PA orjust certain types? Can you have psoriasis and RA and it not be PA? InKJ's site it also said there were 5 types of PA -- can you have more thanone of those types or do they sometimes overlap? I'm very confused!

I also read on KJ 's site about PA and it talks about nail involvement.Well, there is definitely something going on there causes I've got bigindentations on my thumb nails and the nail keeps peeling back to theindentation. Is that what they mean by pitting? All my nails areflattening out and have ridges in them and the cuticles....well, they hurtand are always irritated.

And the spine stuff....boy that would explain a lot! Can I have PA and RA?Could I just have PA and my rheum's been wrong all this time cause mypsoriasis is so mild and I've never really showed it to her? The patches Ihave gotten on my elbows usually come and go within a week or two. In fact,it's been a few years even since I've had those. But when I was first dxwith MS, back in 97, I was having them a lot to the point where they wouldbleed. Come to think of it, after the high steroids with my first MS attackI didn't get them anymore.

Could this be????? I'm lost. I'm must have gotten lost looking for thatreturn line again...............And to top everything else off, my rheumysaid yesterday that she doesn't think the MRI results of my lumbar spinematch my pain pattern so we still don't know what's going on there. Hipwas negative too. So she wants me to see a spine specialist (ortho) andthen they will "talk it over"

and lets just add insult to injury ... My 75 year old Mom whose been inAssisted Living since Dad died in Aug 2001, is showing signs of dementia andthe head nurse wants to have her evaluated for Alzheimer's Disease. This isway too long already to go into those details. I just don't think I candeal with anymore.