Hi. had an appointment with my rheumy yesterday ostensibly to discover the results of a 'nuclear bone scan'. Well can you imagine my surprise when he said that it showed no evidence of inflammation at all?! He then proceded to point out that I'm B27 neg, have had several ESR readings taken and all came back normal. Added to this i didn't get any symptoms until I was 41(im 43 now), i rarely experience morning stiffness (most of my pain is during the day) and the NSD didn't have any effect on me at all.

Nevertheless, I continue to experience pain in my hips and back, achilles tendon aching, knee pains as well as flu-like symptoms. Neck often clicks and cracks when it turns.

The rheumy believes that all of this is an expression of stress (he was quite nice about it. It's hard to be beligerent against a rheumy when all he has to go on are such weak clinical readings). I suppose i wanted some advice from you as to where to go from here. I know I'm ill somewhere along the line but the docs can't act unless they find something i guess. Whilst I'd never wish 'classic AS' on myself i feel as if at least the NSD provides a real goal to aim for, for those with this. With all of this info coming to me from doctors I'm beginning to feel a little lost now and don't know how i can improve my situation.

Dave (Davo) will probably have views on this as he's a similar case I know but then we differ in that he's always had IBS symptoms and I - yet again - have none.

Is there an argument that it's all a mind projection or not?

Cheers to all of you who have tried to help this AS impersonator over the last 6 months. Much appreciated.

Billy