Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group I don't remember how it feels to feel good...

Yeah, Kat, I know what you mean. Does the fact that I CAN push through the pain to do things mean I'm not REALLY in pain? Every time I do something, I feel like there's a hidden camera: "See, he can mow the lawn, why can't he work; he can walk the dogs, why can't he stand on his feet more than a couple of hours; he's washing the car, alert, he's washing the car, AS is not bothering him at all." Sigh. I feel guilty if I don't do anything, but I hurt like heck when I do. I truly wish there was some x-ray or picture or test to prove how difficult it is to function with AS. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do in the end, and it's scary. Ah well, at least there's the Pirates game on Sunday. Temp will be about 70, sunny and the Pirates, hopefully, will win. Have a good weekend everyone, and thanks for all your suggestions.

Hey Pete,

Pain scales are too subjective I found as well when talking with doctors. Ditto earlier comments it helped to explain what I could and could not do.

Best to you Pete.

Tim

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and I PERSONALLY BELIEVE tis 1-10 game doctors play should be curtailed by screaming at the top of your
lungs at the appropriate time FOURTEEN, and see if they do anything different.

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Your bio says you are a Cubbie fan. Having AS is probably a lot like that. Well most of the baseball world knows what an occasional World Series appearance is like. With AS most of the rest of the world knows a day w/o pain.

I haven't been without pain for a single day in 30 years. Unless bones are protruding through my skin or something is spurting blood I pretty much refer to my pain level as a 3-4. Well, I should take my baseline and add five.

Ask a Cub fan what it feels like to have a sub-500 season and you probably hear them say its normal and Wrigley still sells out. If the Yankees go sub-500 the team will be dsbanded. The Stadium torn down and all of sports talk left to mourn the downfall of a dynasty. ASkickers are the Cubs. The rest of the World are the Yankees on steroids comparatively speaking.

On a scale of 1-5. ASkickers pain level amps up to an 11 on a daily basis but unlike the good folks of Spinal Tap we don't know it and aren't telling our publicist.

Ha, Steve, I forgot. When I first joined this thread I was still living in Atlanta. As I cannot stand the Braves, and as I was "on a break" with the Pirates (they broke my heart in 91 and it took moving to Pittsburgh for me to forgive them), I decided to route for the Cubs that year. They were, I think 4 outs away from the World Series before the jinx bit them. As an aside, I am not a fair-weather fan. I stood by my Steelers for 26 years in between Superbowl wins, so there

Steeler fan and a Cub fan. Talk about dichotomy. Steelers are the elite of football. Two coaches for three decades. Steel Curtain and playoff entitlement as a history. Say their name and you can almost hear the NFL films music and the Sabol voices announcing the names of folks in Canton.

Say Cubbies and you look for a baseball blooper film. Ernie Banks being Mr. Baseball and never playing a playoff game. Yep AS is Cubbie baseball. THe sad part is that my pre-AS days are my Steeler years but they only lasted until I was about 14.

AS an aside ole BIg Ben is sorta my ASrole model in that when folks ask me what AS feels like I say its like crashing a motorcycle with no helmet at high speed. OF course unlike Big Ben I feel like I crash it almost every day. He learned his lesson with one crash.