One thing I have always kind of had problems with is lower back pain, but I never really thought much about it. I first started noticing my lower back hurting after I took a charge while playing basketball during my freshman year of high school. I kind of walked with a limp for a few days and I spent that night and whole next day icing my butt/lower back off and on all day. The next time I noticed any major back pain was my freshman year of college. My bed was lofted and as I was trying to get up to the top I lost my balance and fell. I landed on my butt and at the time I kind of laughed it off because I didn't really hurt myself. Looking back, I think these two incidences were the starting point of what triggered all my lower back pain.
At the end of my freshman year of college, I started going through one of the hardest obstacles in my life. I have always been petite and athletic and being fit came fairly easy to me. I went to the gym often and so I thought maybe I injured myself while working out. One morning I woke up and had a difficult time getting out of bed. My back felt very stiff when I woke up. I was having pain in my lower back and it was very uncomfortable and hard to walk.
Finally, I could not handle the pain any longer. I went to my family physician. She had me get X-Rays, and put me on some medication to help make it easier for me to get around. After examining the X-Ray, we noticed my hips were out of alignment. Physical Therapy seemed to be the best option and hopefully in no time I would be back to my normal self.
The next few months ended up becoming extremely frustrating for me. I went to the doctor a lot. I was on many different kinds of medications, I was going to Physical Therapy, I was having to get X-Rays and MRIs, and I was being sent to different specialist doctors. I ended up spending most of my summer on the couch in pain. This went on for several months.
Stephen and my family were both very supportive by helping me get around and going to appointments with me. I think the first time I got really worried was when I was sent to a Spine Specialist. Of course, I had more tests done, but this time they actually noticed something. He noticed something in my joint and referred me to a Rheumatology doctor.
Based on my MRI, they saw inflammation in my sacroiliac (SI) joint which raised some concern. I had no idea what this meant. The Rheumatology doctor started going over my symptoms and we came to the conclusion that I had chronic back pain for more than 3 months and inflammation in my SI joint. These symptoms were two minor symptoms of an autoimmune disease. This autoimmune disease can be hard to diagnose, but if a certain gene shows up in the blood tests then the person can be diagnosed this way.
Unfortunately, my results showed I was positive for the gene HLA-B27. This was a lot to take in and I didn't really know what an autoimmune disease was; I just knew one of my sisters had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, Crohn's, when she was younger. From what I understand they are similar, but very different at the same time. Our immune systems attack different parts of our bodies instead of fighting off the bad viruses. It's like at some point in our lives our bodies got confused and started attacking the wrong things. I later learned that autoimmune diseases have a lot to do with genetics.
As scary as it was to learn I was diagnosed with a disease (that you probably can't even pronounce when reading this) called Ankylosing Spondylitis, it was somewhat of a relief. I could finally get the right treatment to start living my somewhat normal life again. I started taking a Non-Steroidal medication daily and gave myself an injection of medication once a week.
I tried not to think about the fact that I would be living with this disease for the rest of my life as there is no cure. The medication helps with the pain, as well as helps slow the diseases progression down. The only difference in my daily activities were taking the medication and doing exercises to help keep my mobility.
Going back to my somewhat normal life has some downfalls. The disease, at any point in time, can develop what the doctor calls a flare. A flare is what I was experiencing when I started having all my problems. The flare is the inflammation in my SI joint and what causes most of my pain. The disease can also spread to other areas of my body and get worse. I try not to think about those things.
After being diagnosed, I have been able to do everything I did before with the help of the medication and exercises. Most people don't even know I have been diagnosed with a disease.
Stephen was (and still is) a great support system through this diagnosis. He has also helped keep my mind off of it as we do everything like all other normal couples. I don't know what I would do without him.
Everyday I wake up not knowing how I am going to feel or how bad my disease is going to get. I live each day knowing that life is unexpected.
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