Stories of Psoriatic Arthritis: A Mother's Journey to Recovery

Announcer:
This is ReachMD. Welcome to this special series, Beyond Skin Deep: Impacts of Psoriatic Arthritis, sponsored by Lilly.

Host:
Coming to you from the ReachMD studios in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, this is Beyond Skin Deep, and I’m Dr. Matt Birnholz. On this episode, we caught up with Dr. Robin Dore, Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Dore shared the story of a memorable psoriatic arthritis patient whose experience and treatment course helped guide later care recommendations for many others. Here’s what she shared with us from her office in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Dore:
One that I think about the most is a patient that first presented to me when she was a young mother and was pregnant.  Her psoriasis was terrible on her palms and soles and really the rest of her body.  She also had psoriatic arthritis affecting her hands and feet.  She had one pregnancy after another, 3 kids in 4 ½ years, so she never wanted to take any medication, and over this period of time, her skin disease and her psoriasis gradually worsened. 

Finally, after she had weaned the third child when she was about a year and a half, she came in to me and said that she just was finished nursing now, she couldn’t tolerate the psoriasis, that the joint pain was preventing her from running, which is what she really liked to do, and she was finally willing to start on therapy.  I started her on therapy, and we talked about how it should help both the psoriasis and the arthritis, and she came back 6 weeks later, went into the exam room, and she goes, “Dr. Dore, you won’t believe it.  I’ve been able to wear a bikini for the first time.”  And to me, you know, that didn’t mean very much—she’s now 43 years old—but she lives at the beach.  She takes the kids to the beach.  They are a swim family, so they go to the pool and she swims.  And she didn’t even care about how well her psoriatic arthritis was doing, but her psoriasis was clear enough where she could wear that bikini, she could have the self-confidence of knowing that people wouldn’t be staring at her because of some disfiguring rash, and it changed her whole persona.  She’s a school teacher.  She was embarrassed when the students would ask her what was wrong with her skin and could they catch it by touching it.  And when she came back 6 weeks later, she was so much happier, so much more confident, and she’s continued to do well for the last year and a half, and so she’s very appreciative of what therapies can actually offer her.  And the other thing is, she’s now also able to run 3 miles a day, so she not only feels better, she’s able to do the exercise that she wants to do.  And her skin is clear or almost clear, so she’s a very satisfied and a thankful patient. 

Host:
That was Dr. Robin Dore sharing her patient’s unique experience with psoriatic arthritis. For ReachMD, I’m Dr. Matt Birnholz, inviting you to be part of the knowledge.

Announcer:
The preceding program was sponsored by Lilly. Content for this series is produced and controlled by ReachMD. This series is intended for healthcare professionals only. To revisit any part of this discussion and to access other episodes in this series, visit ReachMD.com/beyondskindeep. Thank you for listening. This is ReachMD. Be Part of the Knowledge.