I am a 57-year-old female and didn't know I had ankylosing spondylitis for about 20 years of symptoms. I just thought I was being overly sensitive. In my 20s I suffered with low back pain, and in my 30s, my neck really started bothering me. I think it helped that I always lived an active lifestyle. In my 40s, I was sometimes unable to walk with the hip pain, and I self-medicated with ibuprofen. It wasn't until a bad case of iritis that I was finally diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. (I have the HLA-B27 gene.) Life has been better since then, as I know what I've got and I try to manage the pain. I'm on Naproxen, which I take 500 to 750 mg per day with meals. For me, the key is to stay as active as possible. I work full time, but occasionally call in sick so as to get a little extra rest. When I'm in bad pain, I lie down flat for an hour or so, then I can get up and do some more activities. As a very active person, I hate having to pace myself this way, but it is necessary. Regular monthly massages seems to help with my flexibility, and I have a stretching exercise routine which I do two to three times a week and should do daily, but work, community involvement, family and other interests sometimes interfere. My advice is to keep active, keep positive and focus on what you can do.

At age 22 in my senior year of college my hips started hurting. They hurt for 4-5 months, as best I can recollect. I walked a couple of miles a day to and from classes. They hurt when I got up from my chair and started walking; then it would gradually stop hurting. They also hurt in bed at night. I never took any medicine nor visited a doctor. Eventually it went away. Almost 2 decades later my first back X-ray showed fused SI joints, presumably from "sacroilitis". I guess that was it. My hip pain never returned, but the rest of my back hurt chronically until I was diagnosed with AS last month and got on medicine.

Recently, my internist put me on a short dose of Prednisone that eased the pain quite a bit. Then I saw a rheumatologist who found a fusion in my sacroiliac joints and diagnosed Ankylosing Spondylitis. I was put on more Prednisone for several more weeks, and also on medication to allay the progress of the spondylitis. Of course, the meds have side effects to be aware of. Because I am of advanced age and new to this, I am trying to learn all I can. I may have had symptoms for a long time, but only until the severe hip pain that impaired my activities did I ever feel quite so challenged.

I had back pain starting at age 16. But I was in my late 20's-30's when I developed TMJ and a stiff neck that would not let up. I went from one dr. to another. I went to PT for over 3 months to get my neck and shoulder unfrozen. This is when I was diagnosed with AS. I have flares at least twice a year that leave my barely functional. The last one lasted 6 months and I had to quit my job. But it seems the more rest I get the quicker I come out of a flare. This is just my observation.

Having back pain sometimes so badly that I would not even be able to move at all. Immobilized on the bed I need to wait for up to two mins before I can slowly move my body again. The extreme pain usually comes morning when waking up and happens something like 5 to 6 times a year. Normal days are just some light pains felt sometimes at shoulder blade, neck. Etc.

From childhood when I would walk for more than 10 minutes at a time, my low back around my sacrum would really hurt. That has never gone away. Over the past 5 years my neck would constantly hurt and I got migraines. I developed light sensitivity, my eyes almost always hurt. In the last year, I started having pain in my rib cage and trouble taking deep breaths. Then my sternum area hurt so bad I though I was having a heart attack. Now my feet and ankles hurt and get stiff. I just started seeing a rheumatologist two weeks ago and started on prednisone. I have found some relief, but yesterday I did some light exercise and all the inflammation and pain and stiffness came back. By the way...in the past year I have been diagnosed with Chrones and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. I guess it is all connected. I am only 35 yrs old, female.