Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Hi I am Jake.

it is good to meet you. your mom and i were talking quite a bit yesterday. i didn't start having symptoms til i was in my 30s but lots of others here who started with symptoms at your age are giving you good advice so i will just leave that to them. it is good to have you around!

Hi Jake,

Good to meet you. It's brilliant you joined the site as well as your mum.

What other things do you like to do, besides swimming and running? Do you play music? When my son was your age he had a bit of trouble with bullies. He learned to play bass guitar really well and after that he didn't have any trouble any more.

Jake is at school right now. He plays violin. to answer you question. But nippers keeps us all busy with training on top of the Sunday nippers.

Thank you for being so supportive and nice to me.

Hi Jake,

Welcome to KA! It's been a delight meeting your mother, and I'm glad you decided to join us also. That said, here's hoping you don't end up having AS yourself--we've got enough of that to go around and for sure don't need anyone your age having to put up with this dang illness! I was going to ask what nippers was, but I was smart enough to go back and read some of the other posts first--yep, I was right, someone else already asked what it was and you already answered, so I'm glad I checked. That is really cool that they have junior lifesaving. I saw a documentary on TV years ago that was about how important lifesaving is in Australia. They also showed an Australian lifesaving team competing against teams from around the world in a lifesaving contest, and I have to say I was not surprised at all when the Aussie team won! They were by far the best, as I remember it.

Anyhow, we're glad you're here. I know you're worried about the pain you're experiencing in your knees and feet, but try not to worry too much until you actually hear a doctor tell you that you do have AS. At your age, it would not be unusual to experience growing pains as your bones grow--this does tend to put more stress on joints, which is where the bones come together. And even if you do eventually learn that you do have AS, the fact you're finding out while you're young will help. Plus, there are a lot of exciting new medications that are being worked on right now that will hopefully make it much easier to have AS in the future.

I think it's great that you're going to try the NSD with your mom! I'm sure she appreciates you joining her on the diet--I bet it will boost her morale as she keeps on kicking AS!

Brad

Hey Jake

It's so great to meet you!

Sorry to hear your knees and heels are giving you jip though.

It's so good that you are in the junior life-savers, because swimming is the best exercise ever (AS or no AS). Do you have some kids there that you are mates with? Sometimes going to a club where you all like doing the same thing helps with making friends.

Don't know what the deal is with bullies... maybe it's like animals - say lions - where one just has to be king of the jungle! He likes to make sure everyone knows it so he tries to make the others feel less important. Secretly no-one like the bully - they just don't want to say anything incase they get picked on too. It's all part of growing up and it sucks.

I only had one friend at junior school too - I was really, really small and she was really, really big and everyone used to think that was funny! (it was a bit I suppose..!) I didn't care because she was great and we were best buddies!

You're being so brave, Jake, and we all think you're totally cool and would all be lucky to be your friend.

Hey Jake!
I'm Chris, great to meet ya. It looks like you are coming up as a jr version of myself. I did many of the same sort of things that you are doing, only back in the last century..

I was a competitive swimmer, and lifeguard and water skied any chance that I had. My passion grew into the best jobs that I could have ever wished for. I took all the training I could and became a paramedic and a firefighter among other things.

Looking back I experienced some of those aches and pains that you have described. I used to wear a heel cup to make me walk on my toes to relieve the pain in my heels. Back then it was just 'growing pains'. And yes my friends made fun of me, too. But it just made me want to work that much harder at my swimming.

I have been officially fighting AS for around 10 years now. I envy your position as a young man if you do happen to have AS. There are so many new things being done to combat it. Your mom has to be a great role model, and is starting you off on the NSD early. It helps a lot of AS Kickers.

So don't give up on your dreams Jake.. You have every chance in the world to come out on top and be a better more caring person because of your aches and pains. You have a much bigger supportive family now that you have come here.

It is great to have you as one of us. Welcome Aboard!

Jake says thank you to you all.
Its great being on KA and I hope that you all aren't feeling too bad.


I won't let him on the laptop LOL but he wanted me to post that.