weathering the storms...

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Hurricanes, earthquakes--- well, not exactly it's called ankylosing spondylitis! That's my storm I'm living in and through. While storms generally come and go they sometimes leave a "mess" that can be cleaned, my storm has made landfall and keeps churning! If only it would pass and let me clean up the mess. I'm worried that the mess it's continually spawning on my body will leave severe long term damage for my future.

Those of us who have ankylosing spondylitis only wish there were planes flying in to evaluate this disease---knowledge and research is sooo needed. Even finding doctors who "truly" know AS can be hard! There aren't many medications for those to weather this storm! We don't want to "mask" it! We want to defeat it!

We can't even prepare for this storm that's causing havoc on our bodies. There's no evacuation and boarding up...it's every minute of EVERY day that we stand in 200 mph winds holding on to not be swept away.

Storms are terrible to go through...but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel...the sun shine will break through the clouds, the skies will clear and the clean-up can begin, even if it's a painful clean-up, it can begin and there is an end. Not true for those of us who suffer from a chronic disease...there is NO end. There is NO break in the clouds and there is NO clean-up. There is only minute by minute struggles.

Sometimes it's hard to deal with a never ending storm. Sometimes the disease can start to take over, but it's times like that we must remember that it's our body. It's our life. The disease does NOT own us...we own the disease! I encourage you to take control. STAND TALL and FIGHT!

AS has my body, but it will NOT have me!

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