All over the net I find descriptions of PA relating to "tender and stiff" joints. Certainly when my PA started my fingers were a little tender and a little stiff, but mostly just sore. Since then (10 months, only NSAID treatment) i've had:
- burning pain joint and skin pain with some redness
- fever-like pain, like how your joints feel when you have flu
- intense but very short lived stabbing pains as if being stabbed with a vey tiny icepick. These stabbing pains will come and go across a few select fingers over a few seconds which I am grateful for, if it lasted much longer I'd be very miserable.
But I never see these pains talked about! It makes be doubt my Dx. I no longer have any stiffness in my hands at all and the pain is *much* less frequent (likely due to no longer working with a computer). I've gone from having multiple "stabby pain attacks" a day to maybe once a week. Which is great! It just makes me feel like a big faker.
I also have plantar fasciitis & achilles tendinitis due to the PA which is just getting worse and worse and I also have hip pain and stiffness, which is tender. Sometimes my foot bones lock up in the morning as if they would snap if I were to walk normally.
I find it hard to find the words to describe PA pain and am just curious to how it affects us all differently. Share your experience with me?
Time to start a DMARD Med by the sound of it. NSAIDS will only alleviate inflammation not stop the progression of the disease. Best Practice treatment is to treat early and relatively aggressively. Look up the various sources of information Arthritis Research UK for one.
Yes the pain we all feel does vary. PsA is one of those will of the wisp diseases that comes and goes in different parts of the body but when it sets in needs treatment.
My PsA started in my fingers about 30 yrs of age and was no real problem until 20 years later when it became more aggressive. My hands felt as if they were being attacked by ants...called paresthesia I'm told. Most likely pressure on the nerves from inflamed tissue at wrist and maybe elbow. Pain is very subjective so our experience is likely to be different so stop worrying about the type of pain and ask for treatment that will arrest progress of the arthritis!.
You also would be wise to look up pain pacing for chronic pain to help with the leg /foot/tendon inflammation
The course of my pain went like so (spanning from 2013 or so on): pain in my knee when walking, later jumping to the other knee, followed by sharp stabbing pain in my elbows that woke me up yelling in the middle of the night, followed by sharp lower back & hip pain then aches, and only as of last year did I start getting stabbing pains, tendonitis, and aches that was widespread.
I get the stabbing pains in my fingers, wrists, elbows, toes, plantar fascia, and knees. They never last very long--usually a minute or so, but they are very painful and enough to stop me in my tracks & sometimes enough to make me yell out. It's centered where a tendon attaches to a joint and radiates partway through the tendon. It hits the same joints or group of joints repeatedly within the course of a few hours. I think my doctors think I'm crazy, describing this fleeting migratory sharp pain.
I also have the tender/stiff joints, and sharp pain when using my joints sometimes. The tenderness has only developed recently and mostly affects my hands and the balls of my feet. It's lasted for a week straight now.
I'm in the process of being diagnosed, but I feel pretty confident that once my skin rash fully develops again & I get a skin biopsy, that will solidify the diagnosis.
Hello I have not being diagnosed with PSA, but have had psoriasis for over 20 years, and am now in the process of seeing a rheumatologist for the second time due to joint pain , i have had pains and stiffness which started in my wrist over a year ago, i now have problems in my ankle, where sometimes it is so sore to put weight on it and when i am active, I have had trouble explaining the pain to my GP who thinks I am mad and all is in my head.
But recently been seen physio who has found cartilage problems in my right wrist and left knee, and she supects PSA so I am waiting for a referral, again so I have stiffness and pain in both my wrists, both knees, lower back, and neck, with the ankle more recently started around a month ago, always bad in the morning and at night i feel if my ankle is on fire, i find it difficult to explain the pain to DRs, I can only explain the burning like pain as the same as when you maybe burn yourself and it is the constant throbbing and feels hot, I find the exhaustion more troubling than the pain although I havent been diagnosed,I used to work as a chef but have gave it up due to my wrist and hand not able to work as they used too, and being on my feet for long periods is something i cant do anymore.
Does everyone get swelling with PSA because I have no swelling symptoms at all,
All the best James
Hi megz, it is a good question because I too have found it difficult to explain that there is differences in the different joints. I'm 37 and about three or four years ago I started getting pains in the top of my right foot. The doctors suspected nodules on the nerve, or possible fracture but scans showed nothing. My foot throbbed and swelled and only a cool bath would help. After about 4mths it got better and then I developed plantar fascitis in the other foot. After another couple of months it eased and then a toe on the right foot swelled. I would describe the pain as agony, but flare ups are often hot, constant and throbbing. Only a steroid injection would ease it. I'm now up to four toes and two fingers permanently swollen. I'm on dmards so the pain is less than it was, but it is always there. The more you do the more they ache, and if you over do it then the heat and redness returns. My hands and feet are always warm, but this has only been in the last 18mths, before that they were always cold. Now I'm warm all year round. My wrists however often get sharp pains and I have to wear supports if doing anything heavy. Some of my joints have pain but no swelling, some just seem to want to hurt more than others. I noticed that the affected fingers have been very sensitive even before I had PsA, they would swell temporarily after knocking them. And then there's the aching muscles. They happen more during flare ups, but it probably contributes to making you more sensitive to pain. I've just bought a tens pain machine to try and distract me from the worst pains. Its worth keeping a note of what works for your different pains and letting your doctor know if medications aren't helping. Ruth
I have pain in my SI joints in my low back, it's a burning ache and the joint snaps in place when I twist. The worst time is at night. I have burning pain in both hips switching off and on and some times in my knee. I had Achilles' tendonitis two years ago that I worked out by stretching and better shoes. That was before I got the PA diagnosis. I feel crappy and fatigued most of the time, prednisone helped the most, but everyone wants me off it so I'm currently down to 5 mg a day. My neighbor suggested mj cookies for sleep, which works well but I'm not sure it helps fix the problems. The psoriasis is the least of my issues with finger joints covered but in the "pink" phase. I have rash down both upper arms and my chest. I think the methotrexate helps that.
I don't get swelling. This is all new to me in the past year, pains have been ramping up for several years. I'm 65 this year and came on out of the blue! I mean I had arthritis in my thumbs, I'm old, back and hip pain, I'm fat and old... now psoriasis! Geesh
Hi! I am to have a meeting with a rheumatologist before I can start DMARDS as I have only been dx by my GP. In my city there is only one public rheum so I must play the waiting game. In theory I should see them next month though. Thank you I will looking into this pain pacing thing that you've mentioned 
Hello! I am sorry to hear about your pain but I must say it is wonderful to hear someone describe something similar to what I am going through! I would definitely describe mine "fleeting migratory sharp pain", it's so nice to feel a little less alone I am sort of unofficially dxd at this stage, my GP is certain but I have been unable to see a rheum as yet, so we are waiting for that to start DMARDS although my GP is getting a bit impatient and might just start me on mtx anyway. I've never had a skin biopsy though!
I'm sorry your GP isn't very helpful 
I hope you find answers soon! Sometimes I also feel as though my ankles are on fire, just like you said. As for swelling, I've never had any that I've noticed. Sometimes I think a finger might be a TINY but swollen when it is hurting but in general the fingers that I frequently get pain in are a bit more knobbly than the others so it's hard to tell.
Thank you for sharing Ruth, it's really helpful to hear other people's experiences and sort of interesting too, how we are all so different. I definitely will be keeping a diary of pain once I am put on something other than nsaids.
Thank you for sharing! I have a friend with RA who does the whole mj thing..,it's not legal here though and difficult to come by..plus I never found it useful personally, I just get twitchy! Best of luck to you.
Eek! What country are you in?
Australia (Canberra). Had I known it would be a 10 month waiting list in advance I would have just travelled to another city.. but they told me and my GP 31 days initially and they only informed me it was *actually* 10 months a few weeks ago.
2nd attempt! And Canberra is the capital city of OZ 'nother eek!
I agree on the fact that it kinda moves around...pain is not something that seems to get addressed adequately. I got a severe bout of rectal bleeding just as I was stopping two times daily ibuprofen+Tylenol and starting methotrexate, I was on prednisone 10mg and the Dr seemed to think it was caused by that. I am finishing my fourth acupuncture today and have only found relief several hours at best. At 83$ a treatment I can't afford it anymore. Can you see a rheumatologist, they are the ones that deal with strange symptoms, they will believe you.
Can you get on a cancellation list?
I just saw a rheumatologist for the first time a week ago. Something tells me she's not very familiar with psoriatic arthritis. My GP thinks it's psoriatic arthritis. The rheumatologist is leaning towards undifferentiated connective tissue disease. I think it's because my skin rash is not very active right now so she can't see what it looks like. She wants to try Plaquenil... which I hear can cause severe flares or psoriasis.
I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis about 30 years ago. I started out with a swollen joint on my right pointer finger. The doctors thought it was infected so opened the finger up. But there was no infection and it continued to be swollen and discolored so they were getting ready to do surgery again. A friend was a doctor and sent me to Rhumetology. After a few test I was diagnosed with PA. Right after that my foot was giving me a problem also it was swollen and hot to the touch. Then my knee, hip, and wrist. I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Now I have deformed toes and fingers. I started with Motrin then they added prednisone on that for almost 10 years. Then it was gold shots didn't help. Then methotrexate helped also was doing enbrel shots. Worked me off the methotrexate so all I do is enbrel twice a week in shot form. I still suffer from stiffness for about a hour and a half. Can't take Motrin anymore so alli take for pain is Tylenol. Does any one else suffer from any other forms of arthritis I also have osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. The pain is like needles throughout my feet and hands. I take lyrica for that. Getting late goodnight