The Girl With Arthritis

  Watching my mother break out with psoriasis was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It was so emotionally and physically painful for her. Just watching, I knew it was something I never wanted to go through. And, knock on wood, I haven't. Yet. It's been years since I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. However, I've never actually dealt with psoriasis. My family history, nail issues, and other symptoms fit the bill for psoriatic arthritis. I'm thankful for every year that goes by without psoriasis, but I know it could happen one day. And for years I've lived in fear of it. Read the full article at psoriatic-arthritis.com

Finger nails and toe nails: We've all got them. Some people paint them, some people bite them, and some people have psoriasis on them. I have psoriatic nails. They're highly common in people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, though you don't need either to have psoriatic nails. At this point in time I don't have psoriasis, which makes people wonder how I can possibly have psoriatic arthritis. It's actually because psoriatic nails are highly common in those with psoriatic arthritis and shows the presence of psoriasis. I know of a few people who are diagnosed in the same way. Psoriatic nails tend to having pitting (dents in the nail) but can have lines or seperation of the nail and skin, as well as brittle and discoloured nails. I've dealt with all those problems except pitting. Luckily it's mostly on my toes rather than my fingers, but it still does have it's share of problems. I use to have to swim for school and I'd want to wear open toed s...

I've always been really good with numbers, even when I was little. I was about twelve years old when I became very interested in statistics: 1 in every 1,000 child will have some form of arthritis, 2/3 will have 4 or less joints affected, and at least 30% will go on to have arthritis as adults. That's a lot for a child to take in. Sometimes you seemed like one of a large group and other times you were rare. When I was fourteen and got diagnosed with juvenile psoriatic arthritis, my numbers changed a bit: I felt part of an even smaller group. Only 2-10% of cases tend to be juvenile psoriatic arthritis, but it could be more since it sometimes looks like other types. And even though I found out 80% tend to have nail problems too, I also found 85% have psoriasis first. I'm one in a small group of people who don't have psoriasis before the arthritis sets in. They say that one develops skin problems within months or years of the onset of arthritis. But I have had evidence o...