Three Years Since My AS Diagnosis
You would think getting a diagnosis would have answered all the questions about what was going on in my body. The answers to questions like: What led me to be on sick leave for the third time? I wanted answers and a potion for a cure. A cure that would be able to get me back to the person I once was.
I wish it was that easy
I thought after leaving the rheumatologist's office, I would get a prescription and all my problems solved. Like I said, it was not that easy. I think a lot of it has to do with little information around about AS. I don't blame anyone who can't understand what it really means to have a chronic illness. Because if I didn't go through it, I think it would be hard to know as well. It wasn't until it happened to me. Now I am more educated on when I see someone going through what I am going through.
Back to leaving that doctor's office...
I honestly thought after all the fight I went through to find the right doctor, I would be listened to and understood. I was dismissed numerous times. I was told more than once that it was just anxiety and depression.
It's left a scar. It's left second guessing everything. At the end of the day, I know my body. As I know my body right now better than anyone. It was a relief finding a team of doctors that where able to listen at what I was saying. Finding the doctors to do the tests needed and work with me, not against me.
Even though being in that office, the day of diagnosis, was a relief in a way, it also brought tears in my eyes. I left with just a prescription in my hand to start taking, after many medications failed me. I still thought with the diagnosis I would be better. But it wasn't at all that way.
It's been three years since
Three full years of still feeling the same. Still trying to take one day at a time. Still trying to find new ways to help me live a better, happier life. A life where me and AS can be happy as best as we can be together. The difference between now and then is that I am much stronger mentally.
I have accepted that if I want to try and add things I once loved, I just have to do them a bit differently. I sometimes can't do the things I was able to before, it's okay. It's okay to change it up and make it the way it will work for me. Everyone's health journey will be different and won't look the same. As not every medication we will take, won't be a one size fits all.
Join the conversation