Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Getting close...

I've had GI issues since before I started school, but until I was 30, it was mostly just bouts of chronic constipation. When I was 30, I had severe gastritis and bowel inflammation (for a year I did not digest my food properly), but after 3 years that got better. When I was 35, the joint stuff started. I was really bad, got a bit better within about 5 years with PT and a good physiatrist who gave me a cortisone injection to my SI and a number of trigger point injections. I managed on my own until about 2006 (about 3 or 4 years), then things got a lot worse again. Finally in 2010, I found a good chiropractor (no old fashioned adjustments to the spine (instead manual traction and soft tissue work a lot like my old PT did) and then a rheumy to dx me. Then a good rheumy here in town. In 2011, I started taking methylprednisone when I flared, that was the first "getting better" and then in 2013, I started humira, that was the real "getting better". Isn't perfect right now, but so so much better. I never would have predicted how much better it could be on the right medication.

So yes, it can get better. I do a lot of natural things too. Things I had to do before I could find someone to dx me and allow me to try a biologic. But I needed that biologic to really get my life back.

I still can't sit well. I can sit in my old 1995 saturn with 250K+ miles with ice packs for up to about an hour. That allows me to get to and from work. If I fly, it has to be within an hour or so which limits me to the east coast, but at least I can go to a meeting a year if I need to / want to. I have to use pillows and a number of meds to make those trips, but I can do it now. Driving is the biggest challenge, as my car is getting old and haven't found a new one yet, but I hold out hope. I also have to be very mindful of all chairs: I need completely flat, relatively firm chairs. This is all due to my neck.