I’m 33, But My Autoimmune Disease Makes My Body Feel Like I’m 70

As told to Carina Storrs Jennifer Pellegrin, 33, found out she had psoriatic arthritis at a doctor’s visit for an unrelated procedure. At first, she did not think much of the diagnosis or fully understand how it would change her life. But seeing family members cope with the disease opened her eyes to its devastating effects. Now, she finds strength by helping others and credits the autoimmune disease for helping her become the person she is today. At first, being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis didn’t seem so bad. But that just shows how little I knew about the disease back then. My primary care doctor decided to test me for psoriatic arthritis when I was 24. I was considered high risk because I had the skin condition psoriasis (about 30 percent of psoriasis patients also develop psoriatic arthritis) for almost 10 years, and my knee was often swollen and dislocated — something I had just attributed to normal wear and tear. But there was another reason my doctor wanted to run the test. I was overweight and planning to have gastric bypass surgery, and he thought he could make a stronger case for my insurance to cover the procedure if we could say weight loss would also help my joints. So at the time, I actually thought it could be helpful to find out that I had psoriatic arthritis, at least for insurance purposes. Today, I have been living with this disease for about a decade. And for better or worse, psoriatic arthritis has made me who I am. RELATED...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news