Recently some relatives, who only see me occasionally, told how they remembered being shocked when they saw me back in about '77. I was 30 years old and they saw an old man walking hunched up. They didn't say anything because they didn't want to upset me. It was about that time I was referred to a rheumy clinic. A professor made me walk up and down in front of a class of postgraduate students and then proceeded to rollock me for getting into such a condition. Unfair maybe, but useful. I was told, among other things, to lie face down on the floor for half hour every day to stop my back going over. It was as agonising at first as getting out of bed but it did the trick - I fused straight, infinitely better than hunched over. And I would recommend laying face down like that to anyone with AS, no matter how painful at first.
41F / 5C
todays water temperature in the Serpentine
