Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion Young Adults - The 20-Something Club AS first symptoms

Hello guys from a 23 year old male.
I am curious if the first symptoms for this disease can be pain in the ball of the heel and some of the toes. I have this pain for three weeks now and nothing seems to work. Ive made some blood tests and everything was okay except this hlab27 gene which is positive. So my question is if anyone of you have experienced front heel pain as first symptoms before he was diagnosed.

Sorry to hear you're in pain. From what I have read (obviously take this with a grain of salt), that could potentially be a first symptom. But that pain as you have described it so far, especially for only three weeks and without anything affected beyond the foot, could still be many many things. There are many hlab27 positive people who do not develop AS or any SpA, and some with those diseases who do not have that gene, so it is not a definitive test either.

I hope you find some relief soon! Also, you may want to post this on the general forum - it gets a lot more traffic.

I see from another post that your father has AS, which increases your chances of having it. I still agree with Nicole that 3 weeks is a fairly short period of time to go to a diagnosis of AS. Heel pain can be caused by all kinds of things not related to AS, but usually that symptom is on-going over a long period of time.

My son is 21 but was diagnosed at age 11, and yes, heel pain was his first symptom. We had actually visited his doctor several times over 2 years because he complained of on-going pain in his heels. Since he was very active in sports the doctor kept insisting it was from "overuse". He eventually started having hip pain and was unable to rotate his hips fully. Finally, his ankles swelled to the size of small grapefruits, and a pediatric rheumatologist diagnosed him. You would need to see a rheumatologist if you are concerned-they are the only ones trained to recognize AS. While there is no way to prevent AS, there are many ways to manage this disease. Good luck!

Yes. My first symptom was foot pain when I was 23.