I have felt for many years that something is wrong with my spine and of course all my pain was either due to fibromyalgia or depression.
When I read your post I started to cry... I've been researching a very broad spectrum of my symptoms online and something I see over and over again is ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS ...
I didn't think much of it at first, but because that particular disease keeps popping up repeatedly in all my different searches... I swear I'm seeing it EVERYWHERE! and it was just all of a sudden it appeared and it's not going away. 6 or more months ago I started seeing it and talked about it to my husband alot just because it's fun to say the name (maybe not so much if you actually have it.. :-/). But it keeps popping up and I feel like my gut is telling me this is a sign that I need to have that looked into.
I know that AS is not a very common disease and I know that it's even more rare for women to have it than men. If anybody would have something rare, it would be me though.
I am going to call my doctor tomorrow morning and ask if he will order the HLA-B27 test. Honestly, I'm scared ******** to have it done. Every time I tell my doctors I'd like a particular test or I think I have a particular illness they just assume that I'm a hypochondriac. What these assholes don't get is that I'm the only one who feels my pain.
Thank you very much for the information... I am glad you sent me this because now I am motivated to actually have the test done.
Thanks again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobbi
This may be a long-shot, but I think something still worth asking, V-DubChick:
Have you had a HLA-B27 test?
I heard nearly the same as you and at nearly the same age; when my spinal probs. had progressed terribly, my rheumatologist referred me to a psychiatrist because he (rheumy.) had wanted to chalk everything up to psychogenic whatever. $700 later and... hmmm, psychiatrist didn't discern signs of psychogenic whatever. And... the physical probs. persisted.
Advance some years, and a doc-friend suggested that my doctors order the testing for HLA-B27. I had the tale-tell indicators for Ankylosing Spondylitis or AS. Sure enough, the lab test came back positive. My doctors, either not wanting to believe or hoping to dismiss it, order a repeat on the test. Again, positive.
I think that, at times, and depending on the doctor(s), age (or youth) can be a detriment to accurate dx. Some of the tests that docs would not hesitate to order for some are just not considered for all - with like symptoms. Too, sometimes, it takes a periodic repeat on tests for the tests/results to actually display the things that enable doctors to make an accurate differential dx. (Take sed rate testing, for instance.)
Thanks to all the diddling around my doctors did - for about a decade - my spine is total crap, and I'm disabled. I both loathe and love my w.chair (because it does provide for more independence). But, if I had my way, I wish that the docs would have been more astute and ordered the darn'd test that is one of the main staples in dx'ing AS.
Keep on those doctors. Some times, it takes guiding them so that they believe it is their idea to order appropriate films, etc.
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