Hello, and thanks to you all for the information I have read here. I'm a 58 yr. old construction worker that just had a visit to an orthopedic md. About 4 weeks ago I began waking up with violent pain in the middle of my back which only would improve after moving around for a couple of hours. The pain was so intense and sudden it makes me yell outloud to the point my poor dogs think I'm yelling at them! I thought I had just torn muscles shoveling ice. I have had neck pain and popping for years as well as flareups of severe lower back pain that I attributed to working with my back and wear and tear. After looking at my x-rays the md. stated I had alot of bone growth on my vertebrae and what looked like fusing in hips. He suspects AS and scheduled an MRI and trip to Rhumatologist for tests. Thanks to you folks for educating me about AS so I can ask some intellegent questions when to the md. Good luck to all of you and it's good to know there is a site like this to go to if I get a definitive diagnosis of AS.
