Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Vasculitis?

Hello all,

Has anyone had / does anyone have vasculitis?

What are your symptoms?

How do you diagnosis for sure?

What kind of doctor do you go to for it? Just your rheumatologist or some other kind of doctor? (one that deals with arteries and veins (the vascular system)?)

How do you treat it? Same treatment as all the other inflammation symptoms? For me that's my humira.

In the past, I had a few "spontaneous blood vessel ruptures". I was tested for a bunch of things including clotting and that was all normal. So it was thought either I had naturally weak blood vessels or it could be due to inflammation. Been taking vitamin K since then per my rheumy's recommendations.

More recently I have a few blood vessels that are hard and black and blue in my hand. one is in a finger and very small without any pain. The other is on the side of my hand, just below my pinky, and it slowly grew in (so not a blood blister due to being hit but feels like one). As it got bigger, it hurt more and more and got darker in color. Also I had numbness in my pinky when it was big, pressing on a nerve.

My GP kind of blew it off, told me to apply heat (not sure that is correct) and my chiro suggested ice, but really nothing but time is making it go down. My GP also said he'd cut it out if it didn't disappear, but I ain't lettin' him touch it...no thank you!

I'll ask my rheumy about it when I go in to see him (in about 2 months); I took a photo of it and the one on my finger.

If it is vasculitis, its not an issue if its just superficial blood vessels, but if its other more important veins, that's a problem.

Any advice or shared experience would be appreciated.

Or if it sounds like something else, tell me about that.

Thanks.