Hi everyone,
I just discovered this forum a couple of weeks ago, as I've been purposely avoiding the lure of "Dr. Google" for my chronic spinal pain.
I'm 42, male and in otherwise decent health. I work as an orthopaedic physical therapist.
I started having gradually increasing mid back pain 2 1/2 years ago. Blood work, X-rays negative initially, but given what I do for a living, I knew something was up. Got my self referred to one of the better rheumatologists in the city. More specific blood work showed a postive HLA-B27, but no increase on any inflammtory markers. MRI of cervical/thoracic/lumbar and SI joints were all negative. Rheumy gave me a diagnosis of AS because of my symptoms and history, but not confirmed by the MRI. Started naproxen and omaprazole and have been on them since.
Until recently, pain has generally been mild. Typically mild stiffness and pain in the morning. Would not really notice it during the day, unless I moved my back specifically into extension and rotation. If I overdid some physical activity, I could get some pain into my fingers, wrists, back and heels.
I wanted to see if I could get off of the NSAIDs so after reading some of the success stories, I decided to try the LSD. Normally I eat whatever I want. Lots of starches! 2 weeks ago I completely cut out wheat, potato, and rice products. 1 week later, I cut out milk products. And as of 2 days ago, I started being much more strict, bought an Iodine dropper and tested everything and cut out pretty much everything with starch in it. Read every label meticulously and searched this forum for specific foods to see if others had problems with it.
Unfortunately my symptoms have gradually getting a little worse over the past 2 weeks. Not horrible, but more pain than I recall having over the past couple of years. I sit here typing this, and I have a general dull ache in my thoracic/lumbar spine (which I usually don't have in the middle of the day). My stomach has also been very bloated. Quite uncomfortably so.
Possibly this is all a coincidence, and my AS is starting to flare simultaneously with my LSD/NSD trial? Though my gut (pun intended) tells me that is not the case.
So my first question is, have many of you found that the LSD/NSD has made your symptoms initially worse?
Additionally, I have a fear that refraining from starches will make me extremely sensitive to them, should I want to reintroduce them to my diet in the future. I have a friend who went gluten free to support her husband who has Celiac disease, and a year later, she cannot tolerate any gluten herself. Yikes!
I really appreciate the personal and informative nature of all of the posts I've read on this forum. What a wonderful resource for many, many people out there!
Thanks.
