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Sunday, January 14, 2007

If you have 25 minutes spare, I have a health video for you to watch (broadband connection required).



My wife has AS (Ankylosing Spondylitis). It's an auto-immune disease that affects millions of people yet doesn't have the same publicity as diseases like Lupus (and AS is more common than Lupus). If you have all-over muscle ache, if you have noticed limited range of motion, or if your neck or spine doesn't move like it should, ask your doctor to refer you to a rheumatologist for a simple blood test. Because treating it early with biologics makes all the difference. The video explains it better than this short blog entry.

Listen : Bees - Caribou ... We Are All On Drugs - Weezer.

1 comment:

mandy ( baby sis ) said...

WOW....Beth..i am in awe of you hun.

i whinge like a idiot when i pull my back out but to know that it's a constant battle...i'm not sure how i would cope.

I have an auto-immune disease myself,i have a very overactive immune system and am allergic to most daily materials,chemicals and foods...to date we have pinpointed over 1600 things that i'm allergic to (that includes individual food stuff,drugs,plastics etc ).

the effects that being in contact to these things include,swelling of tissue and muscles and my bones can crack under the weight of the pressure of the swelling,to date my wrist have now got so many hairline fractures that it resembles a map of the london underground!

my hands and feet swell to 4x their normal size and when the skin can no longer contain the flesh,it tears...so i am pretty scarred now.

i take anti-inflamitories daily,anti-hystamine and if it allergy is putting pressure on my air passages i also have an epi-pen and shay calls the ambulance thank god that's only happened twice in the last year ( it was cumberland sausages that brought that on the 1st time and being in the doctors office near latex gloves the 2nd ).

it's distressing at the time and the hands and feet sweeling can last over a week,but i don't class that as debilitating as your condition is.

in between attacks i can at least move normally.

TONS OF LOVE AND MUCH RESPECT TO YOU BETH.