hi dani!

i was diagnosed at age 13 too!! i've never talked with someone else diagnosed so young! (although, some here have kids diagnosed even younger) how old are you now?... i'm 40. when i first went to the arthritis clinic they ran a zillion tests and i saw several doctors... i cried off and on the whole day b/c my mother was younger than most of the ppl there!! i couldn't imagine how on earth i could survive getting to be even close to most of their ages!

anyway... i really didn't understand about AS until much later, and consequently lived my life just like i wanted to... lol... my senior year, i spent my lunch getting ultra sound and hot packs in my high school athletic dept.!

FOOEY!! i have to go.... i'll write more soon! WELCOME!!

gentle hugs,
teddi

keep smiling... it matters! FYI-Because of its literal definition ("fear of the marketplace"), agoraphobia is often misunderstood as a fear of crowds or a fear of open spaces. The clinical definition of agoraphobia is a fear of situations or places "from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event" of a panic attack.