I’m
not sure I have an answer to this question.
But, I can tell you about my symptoms that led to the diagnosis of
ankylosing spondylitis. Early in 2012, I
remember my first symptom occurred while I was working at a computer in my
elementary school classroom. As I stood
up from my computer, I felt a shot of pain that started in my neck and went
down to the base of my spine. Over the
course of a few weeks, my symptoms increased with back pain, neck pain, joint
pain and swelling. I really had no idea what was going on. I went to the doctor, who I had seen earlier
in the year for a herniated disk. He sent
me for physical therapy. While in PT,
things only got worse. I remember while
I was getting treatment for my back, out of nowhere, my left shoulder was in significant
pain. In the meantime, I discussed my health issues
with my father, who was a retired orthopedic surgeon. He said if I didn’t feel better after
physical therapy, then I should see a rheumatologist. After physical therapy and much desperation
of not feeling well, I made an appointment with a rheumatologist. The doctor gave me a thorough exam, blood
work, x-rays, and said to return in 2 weeks to discuss the results. When I returned, she gave me the diagnosis of
ankylosing spondylitis based on my symptoms and testing positive for
HLA-B27. I was lucky that I was
diagnosed so quickly. I am so grateful
for the wise counsel my father gave me to seek out a rheumatologist early in my
disease progression. Most patients with
AS do not get diagnosed for years which results in significant joint damage.
So, what is Ankylosing Spondylitis and what is HLA-B27?
Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is
in a family of joint diseases referred as Spondyloarthropies…SpA for short. AS is
a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and large joints. However,
AS comes in many degrees of disease progression and symptoms. Another post for another day! HLA-B27 is found in a blood test and if you
test positive with this antigen, you are more likely to develop an autoimmune disease like
AS, Juvenile Arthritis or Reactive Arthritis. So it makes sense that based on my symptoms
and the blood test, that Ankylosing Spondylitis was the likely culprit of all these
painful symptoms. In a future post, I
will discuss the many medications and treatment plans I have followed to feel
better. Spoiler alert…. there’s a long
list of medications I tried and it’s still
a work in progress.
