BeckySue, your story about your heels reminds me of my neck issues. The first person to mention anything about it was a chiro I had gone to b/c I was desperate for answers/help and was getting nowhere with my PCP or rhuemy. He was very thorough and did a full set of x-rays before he did anything else. He told me that I had some "straightening" of my C-spine (my neck never hurt at that time) and also noted numerous "spurs" and other issues throughout my spine that he said were unusual for someone my age. Neither my PCP or then rhuemy had really mentioned any of this. He actually tried to treat me for a few weeks but nothing he did helped. Thankfully he was very careful b/c of what he saw on the x-rays and urged me to go back to my PCP and push them to figure out what was going on. About 6-8 months after I first saw him I started getting terrible muscle spasms in my neck and within a couple of months I lost most of my ROM there. My then PCP still wasn't taking things very seriously (I had a long list of other axial symptoms as well as very high SED rate and CRP) and my then rhuemy was apparently a total quack. I had to change PCPs before I got anywhere. It's really terrible that with all of the knowledge out there we have to fight so hard to get a DX. This stuff kicks our butts enough without having to "beg" for proper treatment.
Same here. I had lost more than half my neck ROM on each side, my toes were swelled up, my fingers hurt like hell, my CRP was up the roof but my PCP still blamed "stress". lol...
She said there was nothing wrong with my spine on x-rays so it wasn't any arthritic condition.
At least she finally refered me to a rheumatologist who thank god diagnosed me with AS on the first visit and is actually a very good and involved doctor. Thank God for that.
And even better, Enbrel's Enliven program actually gave me the anti-tnf for free for 6 months until the insurance stuff was ready. And every time there's any sort of delay or problem they make all the calls for me and send me free Enbrel until things are OK again. Frankly I have nothing but praise for their staff.
But my PCP sucks. Thank God I barely ever see her again now. It's been like 2 years... The treatment my rheumy gave me, which is Enbrel + Voltaren when needed gave me a lot of quality of life back. My neck is still stiff on the right side but I gained back some ROM on all other movements, my feet barely hurt anymore, my fingers are OK, etc.
katb how is your neck now?
