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Showing posts from November, 2013

eyes, knees, neck...it's just ankylosing spondylitis and it's a PAIN

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If you've been following, you know my last post was on knee lubricant injections.  Well, I had 3 in 3 weeks...not a fun procedure, but none the less, when you hear a 70% success rate, hey might as well try it.  Sooo, yea, I'm in the 30% FAIL!  Didn't work.  In chatting about me just wanting to be able to dance at my daughters wedding in May, he says, no surgery talk until next summer.  Obviously he must think I don't have enough time to heal by the wedding.  In the meantime, there is something else in the works for me to try.  Try and give me more time until a knee replacement is all that's left.  More on that, when I actually get all the details. Sooo on to the eyes, well, there are not to good.  Most folks with AS get the diagnosis of iritis, for me, well it's pretty much the same symptoms but actually the AS thinks that my eyeballs are joints and it's causing inflammation of my eyeballs.  I'm currently on steroid drops which cause cataracts...lovely

to post or not to post...because it's aggressive

I've logged in a couple of times thinking I'd post only to log out.  Not for the lack of having something to say, but just nahhh why bother.  October was a month of doctor visits as always.  So, here's the latest. Osteoarthritis-OA ever heard of it.  I would bet that most have heard of that (spell check has) but not ankylosing spondylitis (spell check has not).  Facts on OA- -OA may also be called degenerative arthritis -it affects around 27 MILLION Americans -its the leading cause of chronic disability in the US -there are 2 classifications OA and EOA (erosive osteoarthritis-or inflammatory OA-EOA less common and more aggressive) -studies show a link to siblings and it being hereditary -often worsens with time -there is no cure -there are some treatments-medication, injections, or maybe joint replacement and so on and so on.  So, for me.  I found out the 1st of October that my right knee was basically gone. My ortho doc diagnosed OA.  I asked him could this be