I met a delightful young lady at the hydro pool and we got talking and she said she has psoriatic arthritis. She described her symptoms and they have a lot of similarities with mine, although she gets psoriasis on the skin and back pain which I've never had. She clearly felt very alone and isolated and I told her all about this forum and how much it helps me - but I'm not sure if this would be the best place for her given that she doesn't actually have RA. (Although that may change as her consultant has said that she may amend her diagnosis in the future)

Anyway, I just wondered if anybody here has psoriatic arthritis, either on its own or as a partner to RA?



Sylvia xx

Hi Naomi - I did a quick search and came up with PAPAA The Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis Alliance - their website is very informative but doesn't seem to have a forum. I wonder if PsA is even less common than RA? If there's even fewer people with PsA then there might not be sufficient numbers to make a forum like ours viable.

Can I ask someone from NRAS to post on here and let us know the official view? I'll see the young lady again next Wednesday at hydro, but she's due to finish her course very soon and I might not be able to keep in touch after that.

Also can we have some views from other members about potentially widening the net? What do you think about inviting somebody with psoriatic arthritis to join?

ps can somebody let me know if you can see the little cat cartoon I've posted - it's an experiment with an animation but I don't know if you can see it the same as I do!!

Hi....no kitty, sorry Sylvia. Yes, PsA is less common than RA. If these less common types of inflammatory arthritis have no forum then that's even more reason to welcome these people. As long as it's inflammatory then I have no problem. I'd personally feel uncomfortable if we widened the net to include osteo....but I'm sure as that is so common there must already be forums out there. I hope your friend gets the support she needs. I know my friend has a Fb support group for PsA, the members are from the USA I think. I'd be happy to put your friend in touch with mine if this would help. XXX