How Ankylosing Spondylitis Changed My Life

I guess I am the first one from India to write my story on this forum. Hope all the AS warriors are doing well and if not, I hope that everything gonna be fine soon. I would start my story at the time when I was 20. I remember after sitting for a long time, I took some time to stand up straight. Sometimes when I use to keep my leg on the floor, it used to pain a lot. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I would wake up with severe pain, unable to move my body even a little and it used to feel like I will die the next minute. And I had no answer to this. I used to think that this is happening to me because I am not doing exercise and eating more junk. I used to buy painkillers from the pharmacy and eat it every day.

Time passed and my pain started increasing, from once a month to once a week to every day, the pain felt like hell. Sometimes I thought it was sciatica and sometimes slip disc but I didn't know what was going to happen further, I was doing my MBA at the time when the pain started happening every day. I started missing lectures due to pain and started avoiding plans because of fatigue. And I had no answer why I don't feel like doing anything.

One cold night in January 2020, the pain was so severe that I wasn't able to move a bit. And that pain continued for a week. I was locked in my apartment alone. It took me 5 mins to go to my door from my bed to take the food parcels. And that was the time I was sure that Man, this shit is something serious. Since I had no idea what rheumatology is, I took an appointment with an orthopedic, he ran a lot of tests including all the blood tests, X- rays, HLA B27, CRP, ERS. That was the first time I heard these terms but now I have to go through these terms every 6 months.

All the reports came and he told me, "Boy, you have ankylosing spondylitis." I asked him to repeat that since I didn't understand that word. He told me, "It's ankylosing spondylitis, and it's a type of arthritis." Since I was hearing it for the first time, I asked him, "so it will take my life? Because my pain feels like that daily." He told me no and that the pain feels like life-threatening but it is not. He said, "We can control this through medications and exercise and you can lead a normal life." I had no idea whether to be happy that I got a name for my pain or to be sad because I have to live my whole life with this. This was just the time when I got the name to my pain and the next 2 years were like hell for me. I understood how bad AS can be and how much it can affect our life.

Thank you and See you in part 2, Until then Good Bye.