It’s extremely important to have a good relationship with our dermatology colleagues, especially when dealing with patients with possible psoriatic arthritis (PsA). As most of you know, patients diagnosed by their dermatologist with psoriasis can sometimes suffer with...
There are a number of treatment guidelines/recommendations available in nearly every disease state that are based on high-quality clinical evidence. These guidelines typically take many months to develop and require the input of dozens of the leading providers in a...
Treating patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) can be challenging when they fail to respond or lose their response to a specific therapy. Although we are fortunate to have a number of medications available to us with a variety of modes of action, some of our...
For many patients with an autoimmune disease, including myself, finding the right answers to our issues is all about “the journey.” My journey began in my mid- 30s, when I began having daily, persistent joint pain. I went to a number of physicians and chiropractors to...
When a patient is newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there are specific treatment guidelines that are typically followed. This includes the initiation of one or more non-biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), most commonly methotrexate....
I first met JY 2 weeks ago. A 35-year-old, tall, lanky male with a 2-year history of seronegative rheumatoid arthritis (RA), JY initially presented to a rheumatologist in my area with only a handful of troubling issues. His labs were all negative with the exception of...
Recently, I had a casual conversation with some nurse practitioner friends about an older adolescent I saw in clinic, and how my gut told me not to put her on methotrexate (MTX) because I wasn't sure I believed her when she told me that she was not sexually active....
I was diagnosed with my first chronic illness at age 5, so I’ve taken medication daily for basically as long as I can remember. As a result, I didn’t have any trouble accepting that treatment would be necessary when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at...
In October 2017, I met JP, a 66-year-old female patient, for the first time. During our initial meeting, JP reported that she had been recently seen by a new primary care doctor who then referred her to my rheumatology clinic thinking she had rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...
Remember those "x-ray specs" they used to sell in the back of comic books? You'd send in your entire allowance, and in just 6-8 weeks, your x-ray specs would arrive in the mail, instantly allowing you to be able to see through walls, clothing, you name it. Oh, you say...