I can say I'm one of the luckier ones here, in that early on at least I was DXed with something besides IAIYH. Bearing in mind this was the early 80s and the prevalent thought was that women didn't get AS,and I had no fusion at that time, just a lot of pain and inflammation not only in my back but in peripheral joints, especially my left ankle, at least I got a DX of atypical RA, atypical because of the back pain and stiffness and the fact no tests really showed RA. Fast forward 20 years, fusion of SIs, AS DX. But for that 20 years I was at least taken a bit seriously by the medical folk, even though all they had to offer was NSAIDS, which I wouldn't take on a regular basis because of the side effects. As the pain got worse over the years I should have checked back in with a rheumy but I still believed all they could do for me was offer NSAIDS, my GP finally convinced me to go see a rheumy. The advantage? A proper DX of AS, based not only on symptoms but on radiological findings of fusion, but before the X-rays he said (based on what he could see going on by the tests done in the office) that I had either undifferentiated spondylarthropy or AS. And better meds for another thing, muscle relaxers to ease the night time stiffness and resultant broken sleep patterns and sleep deprivation, and finally I was put on Arava (after bombing out on everything else cheaper) and now have had 18 months of blessed remission. The only "bad" doc I had was when my regular doc was out of town and I ruptured a disc, had loss of use of my right leg, was in incredible pain, and she did...nothing. Told me to take Tylenol!!!! Told me I couldn't have AS because women didn't get it. Didn't order an MRI to see the extent of the damage. So I lived in that pain until my rheumy was available and he was furious with the doctor who did so little, said I should actually report her, which for a doctor to say about another doctor is rare to say the least. He immediately ordered the MRI and prescribed some heavy duty pain meds which helped to at least take the edge off the agony from the ruptured disc.

Cheryl

Dogs don't care if the house is clean

My guy If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague. Author Unknown