Hey everyone!

I have now been accepted into university and it is quite likely that this is what I will do for the rest of the year. I am thinking about taking 2-3 less courses than the normal student would take just so I can try and find my feet and ease my way into things. I think it would be much more sensible to have a less rigorous programme as I have struggled a lot mentally and physically recently and I don't think stress would help.

One of the big motivations for getting into university is that I can do an exchange through university without paying extra fees. I am working towards looking at doing an exchange next year and I really want to be able to do this. I don't think it will be easy at all but it's a big dream of mine so I'm gonna try and get there. I'm hoping that I can get on a biologic or something that what give me positive results and enable myself to complete a yearly exchange.

Anyway seeing as I have been here a bit and have gotten great advice through tough times, I thought I'd write about potentially something positive to work towards and a bit of hope in the future.

Any thoughts on this? It's a very long way away which is a bit of a worry because I can never bank on the security of my future health but do you guys think I would be able to do a full year away from home in relation to my Ankylosing Spondylitis?

Anyway hope everyone is having a good day! Thoughts go out to all AS sufferers.

Congrats on being accepted to uni.
I think you have made a good choice to ease into it and see how you go.
My only advice is if you are going to travel make sure you have the right health insurance for your needs and loads of support from the uni.

All the very best and good luck with it all. Well done.

YES!

Oh Seb! -I am so glad to see this. You go, of course you can, do an exchange in a country that has free medical care for example! I am so thrilled to see you have found hope and dreams again, and I know you will find a way!

I can suggest Norway as a example, we have both free medicare and a good education system.

Love
gilth

Congrats Seb! Great that you 'stuck with it', excellent that you can now take courses. And it sounds like a good idea to me to try out a slightly less intense first course load.

Gilth's suggestion of Norway as a potential exchange country would be a great choice when it comes to reliable medicare etc. (They're 'loaded'! All that off-shore oil...) Not the warmest place to go to, but beautiful I'd say the Norwegians are the best Scandinavians - always pleasant and perky! The language is really neat too.

If you start to look into an exchange year further, maybe it's possible to seek out & find AS support groups (via the Uni / KickAs / the interweb?) in that particular country as well.

/Kristine
(Hej Gilth, jag är Svensk)

You go for it!!..Do the very best you can and keep looking forward.

Go for it! Great decision to take less courses too. Remember that you can still get counted as a full time student (for student allowance purposes) with a lighter course load if you get the appropriate medical/disability certificates and do it through the disability services people.

Concentrate not so much on trying to be pain free during the year (though that is important) but on building up a strategy for how you will deal with flares and pain. That is going to help you more than drugs when you are on your exchange.

That's wonderful. I hope you can arrange for the exchange program somewhere that you can get the medical care/meds that you need. You should enjoy your life while you are young.

will let others address the study abroad part of the post, but wanted to make a positive comment regarding taking fewer courses. being a university professor myself, i see a lot of students, advise a lot of students, and everyone, healthy or with chronic illness always tries to push the envelope, take on too much.

often less is more. better to take fewer classes and do really well in them, then to take too many and do poorly or have the added stress.

glad you are starting out with that mentality.

life is a marathon, not a sprint. best to take your time and enjoy the process.

enjoy!

and congrats for being accepted to university! i know this is very important to you!

Terrific.

Getting accepted is great and pacing yourself so that you achieve what you want in a time frame that suits your health is wise.

I always tell folks who hear how young my AS was when it fused my hips that as bad as it sounds to have joints fusing in your teens it was a blessing because it compelled a fool like me to get the education to enable myself to become a self employed individual. Get the education. Plan a path that gives you job where you is not going to be physically arduous for what you might be facing.

Great news. Good to read good stuff happening.

Way to go!

for inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVCBrkrFrBE&feature=youtu.be