Howdy Darlin and welcome to the worlds largest and closest family!
Yes yes, friends are the family we chose for ourselves, nice to have ya on board.
I am a similar diagnosing predicament as yourself, but a lil different.
What is helping me and my Drs is the differential diagnosing information at the American Acadey of Rheumatology web site. There are several criteria for dx of AS. If you have Bamboo chages on your spine this is a late stage disease indicator, and should prove a posative diagnosis for AS, with pain longer than 6 mos in the sacroilliac region, a test for the HLAb27 gene i useful as an exclusionary tool, not confirmatory. As well as a neg rheumatoid factor, a pos ANA, etc...lots of lil things that make the picture, but tha is a good place to start. Also te pain map, and the disease activity indicators, some found here, some on the spondylaropathies association of america web site.
Good luck to you sweety, keep us posted,
Best you and yours,
Bitty Buffy, aka Shu!!
ok, butt the kids gave me the name, ok!
