Laurelalc,

It sure sounds how my started 12 years ago. My first doctor was terrible and basically said it was in my head. After 5-6 year of it getti worse and more frequent he finally reffered me to a back institue which took xrays and said they see no issues and that I should just get a personal trainer. Funny thing was at that time I was a martial artist and certified personal trainer and also later became a yoga instructor. I saw chiro, physio and massgae and only the chiro help a little but none thought of AS.
I finally found a new doctor which can be hard to do in Canada. She took it more serioisly and got xrays and mri but I was hla-b27 negative so she did bot diagnose me. It was till I had a terrible flare up that imo ilized me for 2 weeks that i became pushy with the doctors and started insisting on them looking deeper. It still took another few years for permenant damage to show that I finally got reffered to a rheumatologist and diagnosed.

So key advice is insisit on a referrel to a rheumatoligist becuase it can take a log time to see one if your in Canada. Second stop taking ibbprufin without a stomach protecter it will destroy your digestive tract and make things even worse. If you need to take nsaids get a prescription for a stomach protector or a nsaid with it built in. Try the NSD diet it really does seem to help but it is taking me sometime to maintain it and there are other food I react to likely from the nsaid damage causing leaky gut. I have to stay away from all starch, msg, red meat, mushrooms, peas, pretty much anything in a package. I am still balancing my diet to keep hunger away and energy levels up but it is worth trying.

This group has lots of helpful knowledge