The Rollercoaster of Living with Chronic Pain...Being in pain 24 hours of the day, 7 days of the week is exhausting. Losing sleep because of it, waking up...reactionscomments
Life Lessons from 17 Years of Illness...I’ve had many different chapters in my life—I was diagnosed with AS when I was nine—and I was incredibly ill until I...reactionscomments
Being a Bloke of a Certain Age...Every one of us with AS knows how tough life can be. Every one of us must live with AS – even...reactionscomments
Grieving The Self Of Yesterday...One of the hardest things about living with a chronic illness, particularly a degenerative one, is that you are always grieving for...reactions1comment
The Year of Living Painlessly...I’m firmly knocking on wood as a write this, but it’s been 12 months without a flare. Apart from two pregnancies, during...reactions5comments
Speaking A Shared Language of Pain...Lately, I’ve been in an endless flare-up — one of those flare-ups that change shape every day. It's my neck or my...reactions6comments
Experimenting With CBN...Here in Canada, Cannabis is legal. For a while now I have been using cannabis as a way to cope with my...reactions3comments
The Fear of Going Abroad With AxSpa...As I lie here in bed, listening to a Chili Peppers record, thoughts of worries fill my head. Since I became sick...reactions6comments
Stress, Grief, and Ankylosing Spondylitis...It doesn’t feel like a stretch to say that stress has always made my AS symptoms worse. Most medical professionals and the...reactions4comments
Fatigue...What I Wish I Knew When I Was Diagnosed...Fatigue is tricky, namely because it can impact so much. From your work, to relationships, social life and ability to just function...reactions6comments
Did Stress Lead To My Diagnosis?...Eight years ago, I had my first big flare in my feet. It came from nowhere. It was Summer, I was enjoying...reactions6comments
Watching a Loved One Go Through a Flare-Up...Before we knew they were called "flare-ups," I knew my husband, Keegan, was experiencing something like I'd never seen before. Except for...reactions4comments
I Believe In Butterflies...Butterflies are one of my favorite things in life. Their particular beauty and grace makes it impossible to look away. And they...reactions2comments
The Hardest Part of This Disease...How many of you wish more people around you would understand? How many of you wish living in this world, as a...reactions4comments
What Ifs...With something like ankylosing spondylitis, there are so many physical effects of the condition that it’s sometimes easy to overlook the mental...reactions19comments
Day to Day: My Own Ankylosing Spondylitis Story...I give thanks everyday I get up. No one can understand what we go through or how we feel, unless you have...reactions2comments
A Very Long Journey...In 1962, at the age of 22, I first began having trouble. It began with my legs and feet. At that time...reactions2comments
Even The Nicest People Don't Get It...You know how living with ankylosing spondylitis can feel like speaking a language that only you understand? It can be really isolating...reactions6comments
3 Frenemy Habits Threatening Your Self-Care...I hate finding out that somebody wasn’t actually my friend. It’s painful and embarrassing, especially when the evidence was plain for me...reactions4comments
I Feel Unwelcome in My Own Body...The other day a friend sent me a poem and one line really stuck out to me. It said, “Growing inside of...reactions6comments
