Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group reactive episodes

I have flares which seem to be reactive episodes these last a few days,I feel very warm and the sites of previous enthesopathic lesions all begin to be painful at the same time.
I have just recovered from one and had pains in my heels ,hip,jaw, chest wall ,thumb ,sacro illiacs,and shoulder.When these flares occurs I also tend to sleep a lot .
At other times I may have flares in just one of the above areas and need steroid injection , but I am puzzled by these reactive type short flares .My husband thinks I have a infection at the time .
However when I have looked up reactive arthritis it says the infection is beforehand and then the arthritis lasts weeks.
Although I said I have undifferentiated spondylopathy my official diagnosis is HLA b27 associated spondylopathy with peripheral joint involvement.
My main question is does anyone else suffer from these short flareups.I do feel its very odd that I get these short flareups and it would be good to know that I am not the only one to have them and it s not that odd.Thanks Brenda.ps sorry if I have not explained myself correctly its difficult to put into words

hi brenda:

whenever i have a flare, there's swelling and warmth/fever in the area from the inflammation. i also feel exhausted, flu-like and totally drained.

my flares can last a few days to several weeks. with with prednisone, large doses of ibuprofen and remicade, i eventually feel better.

with AS, you get very in tune with your body. you know the difference between pain from a flare and pain from an overused muscle.

it took forever to get diagnosed. once it was, everything made sense from the alternating pain in the si joints, limping, high sed rate and painful thoracic muscles. and then you can get treated properly too.

take care, leslie

leslie explained what i experience very well.

my flares can last a few days to several weeks as well.

in the beginning it was hard to know cause i'd flare, tear a tendon or ligament pretty badly, then have to deal with the after effects of that. or my SI joint would just stay so inflamed, hard to get it to recover. the recovery periods lasted so long, flares just blended one right into the next.

but now, between the chiro, what i do at home (ice, heat, ultrasound, exercises, drugs (LDN and zanaflex), supplements), rheumatologist, naturpath, etc, i recover a lot faster.

my rheumy thinks "something must be causing my flares".

one theory is leaky gut. i do have inflammation in my illeum. have been shown to have sensitivity to dairy and eggs. but haven't noticed any correlation between what i eat and how i feel. still, i'm nearly dairy and egg free.

another theory had postulated last week was that maybe my seasonal allergies are responsible for my terrible august flares.

but so far, these are just theories.

i used to notice a correlation between my hormones (time of the month) and symptoms (especially my SI joint), but have been in menopause for about 2 years now. and i still flare, maybe not as often, but i do. so still looking for answers.

and still experimenting with solutions. feel like we have a better handle on in between flares and quicker recovery, but still no clue yet on how to prevent them.

Thanks for your reply's both of you said that your flares can last days or longer.I guess mine are just the same that sometimes mine are longer too.
It was just the few day ones that threw me .I felt a fake that I could be using a stick because my achilles tendon etc was very painful then 5days later I would be ok.
Sometimes I think that sinusitis causes a flare and other times I have no idea .The leaking gut sounds interesting. I feel better that some one else have flares lasting a few days and its not just me .Thanks again Brenda

for the longest time, my husband would call them my "pseudo-illnesses" cause i'd say i thought i was getting sick, then after a few days, change my mind. now we realize they are my mini-flares.