Hello to everyone out there. I am new to this, so please bear with me. I am still learning the ropes. I am a 26 year old female who was just diagnosed with AS in November of 2005. I have had a lot of problems since the age of 18, but I never did anything about it. It all started after I had been the the hospital for 10 days with pneumonia. Then the next thing you know, but left knee is swollen to the size of a grapefruit and full of fluid. The Dr said that I would have to have it drained, and I decided that I was not going to have that done and just pretty much ingnored the problem that I has having with my feet and other joints. Just this past October, I was at work and my knee completely gave out on me and I fell to the floor. I ended up going to an Orthapedic surgeon here in my hometown thinking that my problem was somehow related to injury. After an MRI showed nothing, I has arthroscopic surgery for them to tell me that nothing was wrong with my knee other than it was arthritis. After a 6 week check-up my Dr told me that I possible had AS and he was referring me to a rheumy. I went to see him at the end of November, and he took x-rays, blood work and asked a lot of questsion, he told me that I had AS. He put me on a medicine called Methotrexate and folic acid, but it does not seem to be helping. My knee is swollen like a grapefruit and the pain that I have is almost unbearable at times. I have this is my foot, my knee, hips and I also had to have an echiocardiogram done on my heart to see if I have a condition called valvulitis which is part of AS. I go back and see my rheumy on the 27th of this month, but I was hoping all of you out there might have some informtion for me. I have researched different things, but I don't get a lot of time for that since I work full time and am also a full time mom to three beautiful children ages 8, 2, and 1. Anyway....any information from anybody would be great. I look forward to hearing from you, and please feel free to e-mail me at any time.
