buggie,
for me when the heel pain starts, it signals a small flareup is on the way for me! I have gone to custom orthotics($200) and they really help. Two years now, only two episodes of heel pain. Also have heel spurs they showd up on x-ray! You can also tape up your arch a certain way that keeps your arch streched, check with your doc, it works! The doc can also give you a cast to wear a night when you sleep, ya right!. it also keeps the plantar tendon streched.
The iritis I have no cure for, my eyes just run, and burn and sting and run. I put a cold compress over my eyes and nasal area for quick relief.
Peace Arthur in California. Tell Arthur to hang in there, things will turn.

Mine are sensitive to light when I have iritis but not when it is calm hope yours feel better soon
Sandra

Angie,

Is this your first incidence of iritis?? Light sensivity is a bad sign. For the record, my first case of iritis followed some EXTREME stress. Looks like you're a good candidate, my friend. Please get your eyes checked ASAP. Iritis is easily treated, but it has to be treated. I recommend wearing sunglasses at the computer during an iritis attack. Keep me posted. I'm praying for you.

Hugs,

Cindy

HI Buggie,
Long time no talk, but I had to answer to your question on Iritis and mouth ulcers.
I have had problem with mouth ulcer, seems that every time I turned around I had an ucler on the mouth or blisters on the lips. That stops around two years ago. I rarely get them now.
The Iritis, well thats another beast. I just had a flareup(Iritis) couple of months ago. I remember the first flareup. Well, saw couple of eye doctors before one knew what it was. The opthamalogist knew about AS, and the first thing he asked me was "how's your health". The first thing out of my mouth was I have AS and boom. He said you have Uvetis/Iritis. So he put me on hourly drops and oitment at night. The flareup lasted for about two months. Then just after the flareup susided boom the other eye flaredup.
I have been having flareup ever since. One thing I have never had Iritis on both eyes at one time, and I pray I never do. I am very sensity to light. I have to wear dark glasses outside. And I have a hard time focusing for some reason or other.
Well, I hope i answered some of your questions. I hope you are all alright. Say Hi to Art for me and the girls.

Hi Angie,
I second the Cindy recommendation to you and everyone else who mentioned the light sensitivity. We all get the "duck the head" thing when we walk outside on a bright day. I had the stabbing pain upon walking into my bright white bathroom with lighted mirror. THIS IS NOT NORMAL! Please if you feel this GO to an OPHTHOMOLOGIST! It can be dx incorrectly as "pink eye" etc. So only the optometrist/ophthomologist can tell if it is just irritation/infection or actual Iritis.
I had Iritis in one eye, then the other, then BOTH! My Iritis FINALLY, after almost 5 months has calmed down. My brother lost his vision from severe Iritis. This is not to freak anyone out I just want to save someone a lot of problems by telling you to get it checked! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
Take Care,
Janet

Hi Pam.....
LOL!
I have had the burning today as well. I thought maybe it was due to allergies.....but my right eye is still burning, and it's dry. My left heel still hurts. I remember as a teen when I would walk home and have lots of problems with my heel...and I just contributed it to low arch on my feet.

I am due to see the doc this afternoon.....opto doc....we'll see what he says.....

Take care.....



Toodles!
Angie

Hi Ann....
Good to hear from you....
Yes....I make quite the little supervisor..I believe my hubby is going to ship us out to another movie...so we can get out of the way and let him ship this suff out into storage!

see ya'



Toodles!
Angie

Hi there.....
Yes.....sighhhhhh.......the price to pay for bein' cool right??
I used to get alot of pain in the little joints in my toes..and the little joints on top of my feet.....the heel issue is on and off. Luckily it's not as painful as my little toes.....my whole foots wants to cramp up into a little ball when they act up. Polishing my toes becomes quite an event!

Take care.....



Toodles!
Angie

Hello Sinta......
Hope you are doing well these days yourself too..
I used to wear flats and those wedge heels that are in style....never really made a difference. I used to have the heel pain when I was a teenager. But since my dx in May of 01 I never had problems with my heel. But it feels like little dagger pains. I found a new Rheumy that I will be visiting in about a month. He mailed me a bunch of paperwork and a diagram to mark where I have pain! That should be interesting....[laug2] My hip, my knee, my jaw, my leg.....my heel.....heheh!

I bet you look quite stunning in your dark suit and heels......I miss wearing my heels....but since I am no longer working...I am mostly in sandals....bought a couple of those Aerosoles brand..and they are real comfy.

Take care.....yes....I'm still hanging on to the NSD. It's been a struggle this week...but I think I havent done too too bad.....

See ya'



Toodles!
Angie

LOL
I do believe you mean good lookin guys..not so much as good-game !!

You always give me a good chuckle my friend!

Hugs]]]]]]]



Toodles!
Angie

Hi Angie, interesting thread!!

Re. the heel pain, I only seem to get that in a bad flare, and it usually lasts only a few days. My feet have had a tendency to be painful anyway, how much is due to nursing and how much is due to having only size 5 1/2 feet (sometimes a 5!) when I'm 5'9" I don't know!

Re. the eyes, I am sometimes light sensitive, bright light tends to make my eyes run when I first go into it, and I usually have to wear my sunnies when driving, depending on our wonderful UK weather of course! I've never had iritis but just before the AS first started my eyes were very dry and I had a tendency to rub them when asleep or waking which resulted in the conjunctivae becoming swolled, almost blister like, and would take a day or more to settle down, and it got worse when the AS first started. I'd use artificial tear drops and witch hazel packs and try not to look at it too much, typical nurse huh, hates anything to do with eyes! (I think I was haunted from watching an eye op on TV when I was growing up, nearly had me fainting! Then as a student nurse I took a patient to theatre for cataract extraction under LA, and they asked me to stay! How was I going to reassure the guy if I was out cold?!!! but I managed it, stayed upright right through! Patient never guessed, and the theatre team didn't get to peel me off the floor!!! )

Take care,

Jan

With my Iritis, I had extreme light sensitivity and burning. Don't let this go for too long. You might want to consult an Opthamologist right away. The doctor will probably prescribe some Prednisone drops.

Believe me the pain from the ensuing swelling (if left untreated) will make you forget about the light sensitivity. Pressure can build up behind the cornea and cause some pretty intense pain. Take it from me. I was misdiagnosed and it took steroid injections in the eyeball to stop the swelling. That episode is what brought me to KickAS in search of a cause.

Good luck,

John_in_TN

Join the club - been there done that.
The first time I had iritis was in hospital for 10 days - lost the sight completely out of one eye. I then had to have 3 sessions of the injections in the eyes. The third time I had then I must have look like something out of a Brian Rix farce. It took 2 nurses & a doctor to hold me down while the 3rd one injected me!!!. I think sheer will power made the final one work. However, it took approx 6 months for my sight to come back properly.
I have an iritis attack at least once a year & have had for the last 21 years. I feel it will never go away. The first symptoms are the sensitivity to light, the comes the bruised feeling around the eye socket, pain when looking down and and a murky feeling as if you are looking through milky water.
So Ladybuggie - go get your eyes checked - now. If it's nothing, no worries but you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

As for the heel thing. I get that every morning but only lasts about 15 minutes. Walking around helps it heaps.

All for now.



Take Care & Have Fun

Gwyn

In reply to:

---

Just wanted to ask how many have had heel pain....and specifically how long and symptoms??

---

20 years unrelenting...hope yours goes away quicker...I'm still waiting...
Note the heels in my signature




This bunny Kicks AS !

Hi Angie

Yes I occaisionally have heel pain but have never mentioned it to the Doc. For me it is a sort of achy pain on the bottom of my heels.
Eyes - wowy. My first clue to AS was a huge episode wih Iritis. It was excrutiatingly painful and took a long time to recover from.Lost my vision in one eye completely for a couple of days.To say I was sensitive to light would be an understatement. I couldn't stand the pain that light caused. This is no exageration - it was soooooo painful and scary. I also had to have steroid injections into the eye. I sincerely dread this ever happening to me again. So get your eyes looked at.!!
Just prior to this I had a lot of burning, stinging, dryness etc.. These symptoms are still with me but Docs say there is no connection to the Iritis or AS. I think this is simply not true - especially now that I see how many others suffer the same symptoms. Like Cheryl, I use artificial tears but I don't get much relief with them. These symptoms are worse when I am tired. I suspect with all your recent stresses that you are even more tired than usual. Still, don't wait for things to get worse - get your eyes checked.
How is the house stuff going - keep us updated as I am sure we are all worrying about you.

Take Care

Maggie

Peel you off the floor too funny!!

My eyes are still burning......unfortunately. I have become a nightowl due to the pain at night..but that's okay....get to catch up on the posts. I usually log in.....during the day......then leave....so everyone thinks that I am here...but in reality I am out running aorund these silly girls of mine!!

By the way....you have itty bitty feet !!!
My mom wears a size 6.....and she has cute little feet....she is only five feet ...she claims to be five feet one inch.....but that is questionable! I always envied her because she gets such a great selection of shoes at the department stores. I wear a seven and a half to eight....and it's a popular size....so it can be slim-pickings sometimes!!

Take care.....



Toodles!
Angie

Love your medical terms Cheryl!!
As for dry eyes.....yes...mine are very dry.....mostly the right eye.....also have some mouth ulcers......yikes!!!! Opto doc gave me iodine......is that supposed to hurt when they put it in?? It burned the bajeebies out of me!!! Then he finally put some tear drops..and it soothed it. Its still burning though.

So dry eyes is associated with AS....not necessarily Sjorgens?? I told him......."geezzz........first I have to learn how to pronounce AS....now THIS?"

As far as crying....well these last couple of days....I cried a bit......so my diagnosis was that I had completely used up all my tears !! Just a thought.........heheh

Take care......
Hugs]]]]]]]]]

Toodles!
Angie

Ladybuggie I have Sjorjens have had for years I use artificial tears keeps the dryness at bay. The dry eyes come and go,the dry mouth is not as bad but I sip water a lot. They test for it by takeng a very small sample of your lips not too sore,Has nothing to do with the meds ,is common with people with various types of Arthritis,just remmeber to keep your tears on you ,LUV Elspeth.

I have both.. iritis and foot pains. The foot pains I have managed to overcome thankfully.

Uvetis and Iritis are definately linked with AS. And if you are having a flare up you really have to use cortisone eye drops to manage it. But in the long term there are other things that could possibly help, one of them is the drug Salazopyrin (I find this helps, my rheumatologist agrees that it may but says that it is not proven). Another is called rutin.

In your case you might actually find rutin / bromelain very useful. Since your pain is in the heel.. I have been taking 500mg of rutin + 500mg bioflavanoids (by Natural Nutrition from new zealand), along with a vitamin c supplement that contains a mix of extras (called Bio C by Blackmores). I always take it at night after dinner. Anyways rutin seemed to manage both my iritis AND inflammation that I had in my hand and knee. I believe my inflammation in the hand and knee to be at the point where the tendon meets the joint. On the other hand im not sure how much effect it has on the AS I have in my spine and chest. HOWEVER, I am managing quite well without NSAID's. I am forced to use yoga instead of NSAID's to manage pain due to some nasty side effects I have been getting. (The symptoms I get are dry mouth and eyes, see the forum: #1 AS Web Support>>Sjorgens Syndrome)

Yoga has also proved very effective for me, however I must do it twice a day. I thoroughly recommend that you buy a video on yoga so that you can do it from home. My favourite is wai lana, probably because of the beutiful scenery and music? This is the video I use at home as it has lots of good back / hip / chest stretches : http://www.wailana.com/toning.htm

From the articles I have read on PubMed it seems that rutin works in concert with vitamin c. After taking rutin for 2 weeks the pain in my hand + knee and also my iritis were gone. However, yesterday I took a flu tablet containing zinc + echinacea.. Now my iritis has come back with avengence.. We will see if rutin truly works in the long term as it is still early days yet for me..


** Please read this article, it is a very different approach to fighting inflammation ***
URL: http://my.webmd.com/content/article/1668.50862
TITLE: Can Enzymes Cure?
DESCRIPTION: Austrian research shows very positive results with enzymes.
The drug Phlogenzym was used to manage inflammation - this drug contains 90 milligrams bromelain, 48 milligrams trypsin, and 100 milligrams of rutin

This mixture of enzymes was shown to be very effective, and whats more there were far less side effects. In fact none of the people in the study had noted any ill effects. Whilst 2 people who were on Voltaren (a NSAID) had to drop out due to stomach complaints.

Remember that big pharmaceutical companies do not place much funding for research of naturaly products. This is because they can not patent these natural products, and no patent means more competition + less profit.

here is my experience with foot pains...

My footpains began some years ago, and I was left with quite a limp. I had inflammation of the joint between the foot and the toe (metatarsal? which is different from your pain). Anyways after about a year of agony I realised that my pain had started after buying a particular kind of shoe. After wearing a really ancient pair of shoes that I had lying around, I found that my pain gradually decreased.

In the end I bought a new pair of shoes, the brand name is 'Human' .. and they suit me particularly well. What I found is that the thicker the soles on my shoes were the more pain I got !! It seems that the thick soles that I thought would reduce my pain, were in fact increasing my pain. I think that the thick soles were in fact preventing my toes from flexing properly and placing a lot of strain on the joint.. maybe my foot is shaped a bit different from average, who knows??

Anyways, my current shoes are skate board shoes, very thin and very flexible. They did take a week to get used to - but know there is no more limping for the past year or two ! yay !!!! .... Whats more I only have to wear formal shoes with stiff soles for a couple of hours before I feel my pain again - and I have tried many brands.
Just goes to show that modern shoes aren't exactly perfect !