Hello fellow travelers on this journey. My name is Dean, I have been to a Rhumitologist for the first time today. The visit did not teach me anything new (thank you all on this site for the info) except that treatment for this disease is expensive. I dont have insurance, nor am I financially indipendant. I have not made an appointment to do something about my iritis but I will soon.
I have been active for 16 yrs and have been to doctors, chiropractors, ect...ect... I was actually first dignosed by a caring physical therapist about three months ago. During the time that the AS was active I had two back injuries to blame everything on. I guess now I know the truth.
I am having a little trouble staying positive at the moment. I have always been a very active person. It seems that I have this monster to fight that the best I can hope for is a painfull stalemate. I am not sure what all I am going to do to fight this but you can bet that I will do whatever it takes.
I have been trying the low starch diet and I am having trouble finding information on starch content of specific foods. The web sites and posts appear to have a lot of eat this and dont eat that info that often contradicts. I have also noticed that many sites that have reccomended diets mix other perspectives other than starch free, intermixing low carb, low fat, no milk products red meat or (INSERT CURRENT DIETARY BIAS HERE). Anybody know of any web sites with specific ammount of starch content in certain foods? I have not been able to find any, and I am not real crazy about carrying a bottle of Iodine with me everwhere I go.
I realize that there will be a lot of trial and error and that some people flare up with different foods. I was eating sweet potatoes for instance, but some sites insist that this is a definite NO NO, others state plainly that the sweet potato is a perfect substitute and can be eaten with no problems. Whats the deal? I would appreciate some help sorting this out. Thanx :)

Dean