Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Initial "gut feeling" when AS first struck

54.......cripes had no idea you were so much older than me.


Oh and before he starts, I am younger than him too well so are you....!!!!

I can't imagine how hard it must've been for folks a decade or so ago. As crappy as having AS is, I am aware of the fact that me and others who are just recently diagnosed have it pretty good in comparison.

For that I am very grateful to those who have walked this road before and fought to get this disease the recognition it has gotten already (such as it is). This site should be credited for part of that as well.

People like you Alan, are inspirational.

Happy New Year

Chris

Hiya Chris, yes my wife agrees with you, she often comments that my personality drives her to do greaat things,,,,,,,,,not swear, not swing a right and mainly not to slip hemlock in my porridge!!!

You got me thinking about my diagnosis year which I reckon was sometime in 1971 ish, odd, nearly 40 years ago, and me still younger than Wendy.

Perhaps we were luckier, we didn't know what to expect, so expected nothing and just somehow coped.......Harder on you, career gone, the worst yet to come and not quite knowing which way to go next.........lots of women I recommend, they can pamper you, wait upon you and do the dishes.......yes start there....a happy new year to you Ch....ahhh if you permit


Happy new year JACK

Yer cute...for a clot

LOL

I love the harem idea, not sure how that would work...I think my wife would notice? Maybe I could add "live in nurses" slowly over time and get away with it?

I liked the "worst is yet to come" part. I do, in fact, make great efforts to try and think positively but there is something about the cold, hard truth that will simply never lose its appeal.

Much appreciated Alan

Have you already rung in the New Year over there? My brain still hurts from Sue's quiz.

May the coming year bring you closer to your bliss

Chris

(the rhyming was unintentional)

Like Alan said it was hard not much treatment only anti inflams
and pain killers no one understood it and not many had heard of it.Alao like Alan says get on and enjoy as much as you can lifes very short and even shorter with AS.I had some great years even though my AS had started when I was about 7 my teens in pain but enjoyed my late teens early twentys Fantastic Biking boozing and plenty of women hanging with some lets say different sorts of people ha ha.No regrets had a good time even if it did hurt. AS isnt the end gotta keep fighting it.And Im younger than Wendy and Alan.
Kevin

I know for sure you are not complying w/doctor's orders so I feel compelled to turn you in!
Have you skied yet this season?

guess i'm a eternal optimist....or thick! for the first 8 years, i was convinced that i just had a series of unfortunate accidents and situations; screwed up my left wrist by loosening something too tight, screwed up my right wrist by overusing it to compensate for my left, screwed up my left upper back by a quick motion with tight muscles (that just never healed), screwed up my SI by some freak of nature, then my feet went because of the edema from the vioxx....it was only in the summer of 2006 when i had two more "unfortunate accidents" that my physiatrist and orthopedist told me, "i can't help you, you need a rheumatologist, you have an autoimmune inflammatory arthritis." prior to that, another physiatrist told me she suspected that i had an unknown type of autoimmune inflammatory arthritis, but she would still treat my symptoms even if the rheumy couldn't figure out what it was. but then once i went off the vioxx in 2002, i kept feeling better and better til the summer of 2006, when the bottom kind of fell out again. so, for me, kind of the opposite of your experience, it took a long time before i realized this just wasn't normal and maybe i had a bigger problem than "just some bad luck". talk about denial for those first few years, everything was so screwed up, i was spending all my energy on fixing my body, so partly i just didn't have time to think of the bigger issues.

My first feeling was that I wasn't going to get to play in the finals of the District Basketball Tournament. I was 14 and didn't know anything except that I hurt AND I did play the year out in basketball AND the next year AND until I graduated and had my first surgery when I was 19 in college. It was on my elbow from RA.

I guess I have never felt that from AS. I felt it with a very severe SLE flare once. I really thought I would never leave the hospital but was too sick to care.

Blessings.
Possi

I seem to remember a photo of you, suggesting that you were 95. Isn't that right?

Happy new year to you, Alan Ineptwill

And to your young friend, Kevin