Thanks for the replies; it's good to know that not all cases end in severe pain and disability, so I know I need to focus on just today and not keep worrying about what the future may be.

Is it common for symptoms to be intermittent? And I mean very intermittent: my symptoms are there for a few hours at a time, but I also have hours and occasionally several days in a row with almost no symptoms whatsoever. They always return though, but it's been like this since the beginning.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a pattern in these symptom-free periods (ie. diet, stress level, etc.) to see if there's anything I can do to control the symptoms. Anyone has experience similarly intermittent symptoms? Or are most of your symptoms fairly constant?