Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion Young Adults - The 20-Something Club Welcome to the 20-Something Club

welcome anuj123. you will find many more folks to talk with on the general discussion forum. sometimes the 20-something club is not often visited.

come on over to the big forum and let us know your story.

glad you will never give up. a person after my own heart!!!!

peace out...

sequoia

I just found this and I'm so excited to talk to other people who understand what it's like to hear, "You MUST have had an injury because you're just too young to have hip/back/wherever pain like that!" on a regular basis. I'm also looking forward to learning more about the TNF-blockers as well as other natural therapies (in the other forums of course). Stay positive, my young friends!

tia, come on over to the main forum and tell us about your journey.

welcome. sequoia

I've had the same situation as you. Only in both my heels and ankles, it got so bad in my senior year of high school that I was forced into a wheel chair for just over a month. Not a doctor I went to had a clue what was going on until I seen a rhemotologist. He diagnosed me with AS in less than an hour. He started me on artho-tec 50mg twice a day along with a stomach pill. Since then my stomach is destroyed from the anti inflamitories. So now I'm on no medication to cope with my AS and it's in my back, hips, knees, ankles and shoulders now. If anyone on here could give me their advice to a kind of painkiller I should go with it'd be greatly appreciated

My 24 yo son was just diagnosed with AS. His symptoms started very suddenly, and seemed to migrate to various joints. Autoimmune diseases tend to run in our family & he tested positive for the gene. While they checked him for everything, & did xrays, it was finally decided by his rheum that this is what it is. His xrays were essentially neg (which was good as she says it shows no damage yet). He has been on 20mg daily of prednisone to help with the symptoms while waiting on the test results, which helped tremendously. So now he will start on a titration of sulfasalazine while weaning the pred. He will start PT a little later & he is probably going to be changing careers, as he currently is a machinist, lifting heavy parts & standing on concrete most of the night. What a life-changing experience!! He went from being apparently totally healthy to this!! It breaks my heart!! I'm glad I found this site, as I've already been researching. Fortunately, his daily pain is quite tolerable & I pray it will only get better. Any advice or help that anyone can offer us will be greatly appreciated! Our goal is to prevent any further damage & keep the pain at bay!

Hi Lmorto02! Sorry to hear about what your son is going through, but it's actually really good if he's gotten a dx so soon. Getting treatment early will definitely be a positive for him in the long term of this dx. There's not much traffic on this page lately, you may get more responses if you post on general discussion page. Welcome!

Hiii guys!
I havent been here in a while- been feeling fabulous- except for the pain in my feet mostly, but I can deal with that.

Unfortunately I had the worst flare OF MY LIFE last night. Attacked my spine and my ribcage. Could hardly breathe. Ended up in casualty and on a drip for pain.
First time that's ever happened to me. Normally I'm so strong and can deal with the pain, but last night ended with me in absolute tears. Thank heavens I still stay at home and my mom was with me the whole time.
Think I've taken a serious confidence knock. Thought I could deal with this infuriating disease and move on with my life. Now I'm too scared to go out and do anything in case I have another attack. Feeling super fragile today!

I'm sorry Lease. I hope that things get back to their former fabulousness and you're able to get on with life-as-usual. I hope that you're able to regain that confidence. While it's true that we can overdo it and cause flares, it's arguably more damaging to not do anything at all - it's so important to be active with these diseases.

Hi, my rheumy recently gave me a vague diagnosis of mild form of AS since my blood test for HLA-B27 was negative but revealed I have mild Crohn's disease as well. I still have lots of pain and increasingly losing flexibility in my low back and feel more stiffness/cracking in my neck.

My symptoms began five years ago, when I was 20 with low back pain out of nowhere. It wasn't bad at first but then got progressively worse, by 2010 it was really bad and continued to get worse. The pain was worse in the morning and hurt the worst when I sat or stood still for a while. Then in 2012 my neck began to hurt as well. MRI of lumbar showed arthritis and disc degeneration. MRI of my neck revealed bone spurs. I also have pain in the middle of my back and sharp pain in my chest sometimes. I also have pain in my perineum, genitals, hips, knees, heels, and sacrum. I feel my low back is getting stiffer and has lost its lumbar curve. Rheumy told me to keep taking NSAIDS and wait again till March to see him again. I want a definitive diagnosis and feel like he won't give me one due to the HLA-B27 negative test result. I've went through five years of hell and don't want to wait any longer for an answer. Can anyone please give me your thoughts. I've went to so many doctors and feel like I have nobody else to turn to. Thanks.

"A mild form of Ankylosing Spondylitis" is actually a pretty specific diagnosis. If he feels you meet the diagnostic criteria well enough to call it any sort of AS, that's pretty darn specific, as it's a pretty demanding set of criteria to meet. That being said, continuing to take NSAIDs and waiting 5 or 6 months to see him again isn't terribly helpful, unless NSAIDs are controlling your disease effectively.