I'm 99% sure I've had this since a teenager!
🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 I was recently diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis at the age of 50 (I'm 51 now), and looking back at my life, I realised that I'VE HAD THIS SINCE I WAS A TEENAGER! Yes, I definitely had the "growing pains." But then after puberty came hyperkyphosis (forward leaning neck with a hump), horrendous sternum pain (I was told it was chronic pleurisy), neck pain, then starting at 20, DEBILITATING lower back pain just from doing normal things. Throughout the years I was told, "Oh, you just need to lose weight, you have fibromyalgia (I have that too), you just need to get stronger muscles." I've been in physical therapy off and on since 2003, ahem!
Then menopause came, and that took away the "drug" (estrogen) that was quelling the widespread pain. Then I had covid, and it threw FIRE on my body. Now I'm in so much pain and fatigue, with so more (new) pain and instability in my knees, ankles, feet, elbows, wrists, heels, and my pelvis (SI joint), neck, and back.
I've just started the biologic Enbrel, and hopefully that works! 🥹
