Quote:
Originally Posted by Dubious
Whoa....what a minute! You had all of those degenerative changes in your spine with severe central stenosis....at the age of 22? Something is missing or afoul...??
You are about the right age for AS; I am assuming you had a positive HLAB27 on your labs, when you speak of a marker? Usually a panel is run along with that...including ANA, CRP, sed rate and rheum factor (sometimes CBC if RA is suspect as anemia is associated with it). Did you have those too? Sounds like you'll soon be visiting (or should be) your friendly rheumatologist!
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Yep, I'm only 22. And the pain started when I was barely 21. Like you said, all of my symptoms fit AS -- I'm the right age and gender, I have the obvious back pain, I have symptoms of costochondritis, I'm having joint and tendon issues with my knees, hip, feet, and hands, and more. I've done a ton of research on AS and I actually suggested to my primary care doctor that we should explore AS today and she agreed. I just had blood drawn today to test for the HLAB27 factor. I'm assuming they will check the sedimentation rate, but I didn't ask. I had a blood test done to rule out RA a while ago, and I was at least cleared of having the RA factors.