Holy crap, i am reading this and thinking what the hell.???? Most people with AS miss less time from work than able bodied people. In fact, AS people tend to "complain" less than some people with other chronic illnesses. I think I speak for most of us when I say we all have tried to hide it from others....too many questions etc. but make no mistake it is a horrible and painful chronic and degenerative illness, and until I found this site could not find any real medical information about AS.
I too am not interested in sitting in a room with a bunch of pople with the arthritis and just complaining about the pain etc., but this is NOT what this site is!!!!
This site is information and information is power to manage this disease and have a life. If it were not for Ben, Mig and Megan and the information from this site I would not be on Enbrel today, which has greatly improved the quality of my life. This site gave me more information on TNF's etc. then my Rhuematologist could in a few visits.
to even compare this site to those two disorders is not relevant....is comparing apples to oranges. I go on the site bi monthly, or when i have a question, the people on this site are all at different stages of this progressive disease so you will get more accurate information than from a Rhuematologist that is on to the next patient.
So, in closing I suggest you use the site and appreicate it for the world wide information site that it is. I assure you people with AS are not hypochondriacs,(sp) that is a condition of worrying about having an illness of some sort, not actually having one. to cmpare it to manchousions (sp) is also absurd!!!!
Lisa
