Hi, Angie:
I was just over 20 when I began having symptoms and it took about seven years to get diagnosed. When I first got AS, the HLA B27 antigen was not yet connected with the disease. I may have exhibited some symptoms much earlier, but they were just characterized as 'severe growing pains' and I had several years of near-total remission. Then, after an extended fast, another very long period of remission.
Perhaps you will be able to avoid much of the damage that others of us are stuck with--good luck,
John
