Living

I was diagnosed with AS in 1999 and told I’d never work again. I went on full benefits – I was even allowed to apply for a car. I felt...

The Bob Seger tune "Like a Rock" came on my music player as I walked the other day. It got me thinking of the number of references in popular music about...

Taltz is not my first biologic on my journey to finding the right treatment. My first biologic was Cimzia, but my rheumatologist believed it stopped working right after my loading...

Ankylosing spondylitis (and any other chronic illness for that matter) can happen to anyone. It doesn’t care if you’re a new college student or a single working mom of three...

When we think about foot pain, we often don’t think of it being a common AxSpa symptom, but for me this was one the main symptoms that started to put...

I left off Part 1 of my diagnosis story just before I was forced to wheel myself onto a flight back to the UK. I bid farewell to all of...

My first birthday being sick was a strange one. I was so unwell. My friends and family made such an effort to make sure I had a special day, a...

Before I tell you about my experience on Cimzia, I want you to know that everybody is different, we will all react differently to medicine. What works for me, might...

This is going to be hard to write — and hard to admit to myself — but I've had to develop real boundaries when it comes to engagement in the...

Living with chronic illness means constantly feeling like you are tending to something, whether that be your physical body and its very real and always-present pain, or the deluge of...

If you’ve read my other articles, you will know that before I got sick, I was a remarkably busy person. I used to work a lot while being a student in college. I was always...

It’s roughly twenty years since I first noticed my symptoms. Eight years later I would finally hear them referred to as clear indicators that I had ankylosing spondylitis. During those...

Music is incredibly important in my life. I began playing from a young age courtesy of a lovingly heavy influence from my incredibly talented grandmother. I started formally taking piano...

As I’ve got older, I’ve become less inhibited about certain things. I’d always believed (naively perhaps) a person got more inhibited as they aged. Not less. But maybe it’s the...

Years ago I remember talking to some friends about what we envisioned for our futures—how our lives would look by the ages of 20, 25, 27… I remember saying that...

If you are anything like me, sleep is vital to your existence and it is non-negotiable for my pain management. And while I can sit here and say this now...

Everyone is at a different stage in their AS, which is why I'm recommending these three below ways to move with one clear caveat: Please listen to your body, and...

Although being diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis was a scary and uncertain experience, there are a lot of positives to come out of it. I began fundraising, something I had never...

Living with condition like AS is not as simple as taking medicine and getting on with it. Medication can only do so much. I'm very grateful for how well my...

I have lived with this condition for 30 years now. And I can say it has been a true rollercoaster ride for me filled with many ups and downs. Unfortunately...