Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Felt like i was stabbed in the back!

hello my name is brad. I'm 30 years old. i was diagnosed with AS about 16 months ago. although I've had lower back pain as most everyone has for about 6 years. I've been on humira and now enbrel. Neither work that great but they have made improvements. I also take meloxicam and prednisone for my flare ups. I usually have fairly manageable and predicable flares but the point and reason why i joined this forum is because this past Thursday. i was at work driving through a parking lot, doing almost nothing when i felt like i was stabbed in my lower back. it was awful. i couldn't turn at the waist very well and bending over was almost impossible. i couldn't even touch my knees. i had to call my wife at home who thankfully brought me out some medicine to help but even after a few hours I was only at about 75%

So I'm home today from work because this morning when i woke up i couldn't bend over far enough to pick up my shoes. so my questions are, has anyone had a flare come on this fast? and how do you guys/girls deal with having to work a full time job if there's days when you cant even stand up?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Brad and welcome,
To put it bluntly, alot of us are on disabilty. And those who aren't are nearly there.
the pain is weird man, it comes and goes. And it's likely to get worse.
it can affect even your eyes.

Hi Brad, I'm sorry your in pain, no way around it and it sucks.
Flares are so unpredictable. I'm quite sure every one of us can tell you a story or a hundred just like yours. Years of not tying shoes or bending down, pure hell. My low was crawling on my hands and knees to get to the bathroom and having my 10 yr old nephew try and help me. I didnt make it in time, I was mortified. Many of us are on disability, that is true, but many work as well. You will figure out what works for you. Some people can't take Nsaids, and for some they are a life saver. Its all trial and error a i know that answer sucks massively. I have had this for over 20 years, and although I had good years in between I've also had a really really bad years as well. I found a medication like ibuprofen that works great for me and never bothers my stomach, & I also take pain meds to help when nothing else will. Biologics work great for some people and for some like me they didn't do much. It took me many years to figure out the way I was sleeping was causing me to flare badly in the morning, literally by just having a pillow under my knees I was torturing my own sciatic nerve. I removed that pillow and suddenly I was good to go. I use heat and ice both hot hot showers then lots of cold ice packs. It will take time but you will learn many many tricks to get through every day. Having this website to learn those tricks is a huge bonus we didn't have this when I was young and nobody really knew what was wrong with me or many of the rest of us . Read everything you can about your disease educate yourself and become medically literate. And when you need help do exactly what you did and reach out here and somebody will always respond. Good luck and I hope this fully rands very quickly for you.
Peace and painless days,
Rainy

thanks for the responses. i was diagnosed with AS after i had uveitis. my eye dr sent me for blood work and i can back hla b27 positive and the rest is history.

what an awful and unpredictable disease.

Hello there,

My father was told he would be in wheel chair by 50, never happened. Retired from teaching at 65. His entire back fused, but he fused upright. I am 46 now and dealing with AS for 20+ years now... gosh, hard to believe it is that long.

I have had very bad low back pain, when at the worst, felt more like someone took a bat to my back and hit me square in the low back. Curious what you may have eaten 1-2 hours prior to such bad pain. With back pain I normally would wake with lots of stiffness that lead to pain and unable to bend. However, the bat to the back pain was typically 1-2 hours after eating... finally tied that to something I ate.

My worst pain was right SI pain.. could be after sleeping, walking up stairs, over doing it. At times I would nearly collapse on my right leg there was so much inflammation in my right SI joint.. in mornings it would take me 10 minutes to get out of bed as I could not move or even roll over to get out of bed.. would have to crawl to shower and take hot shower that helped.

Hope you find some answers to all the pain. Hang in there and take one day at a time.

Try different meds, also look at alternatives such as diet, fish oil, probiotics... learn all you can about AS and treatments, it will help you down the road.

Tim

If a flare is heightened immune reaction, then surely what you felt must have been something like a muscle spasm. That is not to say the pain could not be caused a flare, but I'd say a flare, being what it is, takes hours, not seconds to take hold.

Hello, Brad:



What You are describing sounds more like a trapped nerve causing muscle spasm. Advancing AS will collapse our vertebrae, and resulting stenosis usually interferes with nerves. It might be a good thing to review Your current height compared with a few years ago.

I lost nearly seven vertical inches to AS and surgeries due to the long-term mismanagement of my AS. There were days when I could not even walk, and it was a serious limitation to my career.

HEALTH,
John

John touched on something there that you should take note of.
That it limited his career. This AS is an expensive condition at best, then add up lost work over the years it adds up fast. If I would have known then what I know now I would have been extremely frugal with what I earned when I was still able. I have been out of the work force for nearly three years.

Hey and welcome.

I don´t want to be doom and gloom all the time.
I have had AS for 16 years now.

The last 7 have been pain free. I take a medication and try to take care of myself and in that time it has worked for me.

Ye I have some horror stories from the past, I possibly will do in the future because I don´t know what the future holds for me.....

The good thing about this disease is that it taught me to take care of myself as much as I can.

swimming, cycling, walking, good beds, good shoes, no smoking etc etc.

And possibly the best thing is that when I get the chance to do something I try to do it as I may not be able to do it physically tomorrow.

Hope this helps

Good Luck