Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Hi, I am new here, kind of worried.

Hi there, my name is Jake. I am 32 years old, have AS pretty bad. Had my hips replaced in 95 or 96.
I start Enbrel tomorrow; I am horrified about giving myself shots. I take it twice a week, I am going to see if I can get to a walk in clinic as many times as I can so I don’t have to give the shot to myself.

I have realized that I have been trying to ignore my AS as much as possible, masking my physical and emotional pain with beer. As I become more sober everyday I am weighed down with guilt from running away. My diet sucks, I gained weight, my posture is horrible, and they found fractures in my spine. Ha-ha, I think I am going insane.
I hope this new med works; I have to turn my life around because right now I am in a big painful rut. I miss looking up into the sky, I miss reaching for things in the grocery store on my own. I miss taking walks or riding my bike. I am 32, feels like I am 102.

Sorry for whining, I am just nervous about life at the moment, perhaps looking for some light in this forum.
I have read many posts on here and you all sound great, some of the posts made me feel a little better.

I'm going to play with my cat now, she always make laugh.

Thanks for listening.

hi jake

hang in here. alot of great people here

and you will ride your bike again


lisa

Hi Jake

Welcome to KA.

You will come to realize that this is the best place around. It is full of wonderful people that are more than willing to answer your questions or just be here when you need someone.

Lori

Hi Jake,

Welcome to KickAS

I believe some people here could give you more advise about Enbrel and hope this could give you some sort of miracle and you can ride your bike again.

Stay around and learn more about the disease, check the diet corner, it helped me very much to maintain my pain.

Finger crossed for you,

Sinta

Hi Jake this is the greatest site for AS.WELCOME,
Bradford

To the world you may be one person,but,to one person you may be the world.

Edited by towman on 11/03/03 11:11 PM (server time).

Hi Jake

Welcome to the site. I'm Glad to hear that you will be starting on the Enbrel. If I could take it I would be just like you wanting someone else to poke me with the needle. ( I hate needles ) Stick around so we can all get to know you better.

John

Hey Jake,

You're one up on me!!! I've had my hips replaced in my early 20's and am in my re-replacement phase now. You at least have a skill, bio says something about web-thing-a ma-bob. I'm skilless and forced into the netherworld of being a lawyer with lots of other genuinely skilless folk.

I hid my pains with beer, boozes of a rainbow of colors from 17-30 and assorted trysts with financial gambling binges and other fun and games and yet I survived to now have a wonderful wife and life. So AS can create some huge demons as far as I'm concerned.

I was 6'0" tall once and now stand a very bent 5'5" or thereaboutsmaybe closer to 5'4" but the truth is such an ugly thing. Anyway if I could do this and survive to have a great life don't worry it is empirical evidence that anyone can.

OH and BTW I haven't read any other replies, but change the DIET. AS and bad diets are hell together. Reduce the strch but don't remove the beer too quickly. Well at least that's my very morally bankrupt suggestion.




 
stevec-they also serve who stand and wait

Hey Jake,

You came to the right place for advice and some serious friendship. You'll find more people here that will spend more time with you than you'll know what to do with.

So you have AS, bummer, most of us do too. You've had hip replacement, guess what, many of us have too. It's just part of your life that you can't change. What you have to do is get a hold of yourself and fight for a better life than you have now. I think a start would be to not use booze to mask your condition. Face it my friend you got dealt a bad hand and you can't change it, now let's deal with it. I always feel better with a Kokanee in my hand, but I still have AS. Your 32 and I'm 53, I've had AS for more than 30 years, but was just dxed a year ago. Before I was dxed I was thinking this constant pain was all in my head, now I know I'm legitamate. I, just as you, thought I was going insane. Now I have to deal with it. Get a grip little brother you can handle this as well.

So your starting Enbrel, good for you. I started Enbrel about 6 weeks ago. I think I'm getting great relief at this point. I sometimes feel as though my AS is gone and I over do things which usually sends me into a flare. I hate when that happens. I think the Enbrel makes life a lot easier, but it doesn't make the disease go away.

There's a lot to be said about diet and this disease. Check out the forums on the NSD and LSD. I try to stick close to the LSD and I've noticed some relief from pain. It doesn't work for everyone, but it's worth a try.

So you don't think you want to inject yourself? It's a lot easier than you might think. Sure my first couple times were scary, but it's really a piece of cake. Besides I don't want the people at the walk in to think I'm a wuss. I wouldn't want to have my wife do it (she's a bigger wuss than I am). I do it myself, no big deal. Although if you have a real problem I understand that firestations will administer shots as well. It's just easier to handle it yourself. Do what ever works for you.

Don't ever worry about whining when you come here to KickAS, we all do our share. It's always good to have some new blood. We're all here for each other and you.

So Jake my friend, jump in and join our party we'd love to have you in our family....

Fred

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight....It's the size of the fight in the dog." Mark Twain

Hi and Welcome Jake.



I see you live in Ontario - me too. There are quite a few of us now, including several folks in Toronto ( I see you were born there )

I hope Enbrel works as well for you as it has for many others here. You sound like you could really use some relief.

I'm sure you don't need anyone else to say this but I'm going to anyway - too much booze dosn't help anything. Eventually it will make things worse.

I agree, by the way, that cats are great company.

Keep your chin up and keep coming here - the support really helps

Maggie

Hi Jake

I was wondering if the Enbrel you are starting is from some kind of trial or can you get it at the drug stores in Ontario now??

John