Ankylosing spondylitis wife, mom, and grandmom!

For those of us that live with ankylosing spondylitis, making sure we have doctors that are educated on our disease can sometimes be hard.  Right now you may be saying doctors don't know about AS?  How is that possible?  You must be wrong.  Well, I'm not wrong and it gets VERY frustrating at times.  AS is one of those autoimmune diseases that really can be confusing for all involved, even the doctors!  What needs to be done is kind of a going back to the drawing board on their education and knowledge.  Here's 4 "things" I've seen and read about AS -men get it more than women -it starts in the sacroiliac joints (hips) -must see damage on x-rays/mri's -shows signs of inflammation in blood work These four things are wrong---first off, women don't get diagnosed properly because often times they have NO sac joint damage, because it affects other joints like the shoulders, ankles, etc.  X-rays and MRI's take YEARS to show any AS damage ...

Shoulder is progressing in the "healing department", but not as fast as I'd like.  I keep reminding myself the doctor told me a year...ack...a year?!  Physical therapy is..well..physical therapy!   I am feeling better for sure.  Trying to decide if pre-surgery shoulder is better and I do think it is, but there are those times that I think it feels the same...but that's the "not so patient" person talking.  I have to give myself time to heal. I did have someone tell me that they were out of their sling in 2 weeks--kind of jokingly--and I had to explain, my disease--then got a quick-oh?.  I am out of the sling now, but still limited as to what I can do.  I don't know how long until the pain ceases and the motion comes back, but I'll keep trucking! So, back to the disease of ankylosing spondylitis (AS).  This will not heal me.  I probably will have future surgeries repairing joints that are destroying themselves from the inside.  I...