An invisible disease

Women are three times as likely to be in the firing line when it comes to inflammation, but researchers are still investigating why

- WORDS by CAROLINE ZIELINSKI

About 10 years ago, Dr Tanya Finnie’s life changed. Diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia – chronic, autoimmune conditions that cause joint pain, fatigue, brain fog and inflammation throughout her body – the professional speaker and motherof-one had to find a way to exist in her new body while still living her life.

“I’ve sat through meetings silently pushing through pain because I didn’t want to be seen as dramatic,” she says. “I’ve had to cancel plans, not because I didn’t want to show up, but because my body had already decided for me. There’s a constant tension between wanting to appear ‘fine’ ... and the reality that, some days, simply existing takes all my energy.”

Tanya wasn’t always this sick. The symptoms have gotten worse over the years, and in the last couple she has been trialling different medications as well as making lifestyle changes to raise her quality of life. “It’s a complicated disease,” she says. “It’s affected my life in various ways, from having to figure out how to manage the fatigue with being a professional speaker on large stages to figuring out new ways to travel.” She can’t walk around as much without her feet ballooning.

It doesn’t help that the disease remains largely invisible. “Society still doesn’t quite know what to do with invisible diseases – we have a long way to go when it comes to understanding that not all illness is visible, linear, or easily defined,” she says.

What is inflammation?

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is not the same as the most commonly known “arthritis” (a global term meaning joint disease, of which there are more than 100 types), osteoarthritis, which is the wear and tear of joints.