Hi Pixel
I don't have AS but my husband Jon does. Luckily he got diagnosed within the first year of starting to get symptoms so we had a name for his problems early on. And it was very obvious that something was seriously wrong from the start as his symptoms were quite severe and very hard to dismiss.
When I told people he had and auto-immune disease they would react with horror and much sympathy. However, if I told them he had a form of arthritis they would brush it off like it was no big deal and say "oh yeah, I get arthritis in my knee/finger/whatever, it's a really annoying". I would feel like slapping them and yelling - that is pathetic and nothing like what Jon is going thru you big ignoramus!!! Of course, I never did that.
So now I stick with the "auto-immune disease which causes the spine to fuse together" line so that people recognise how serious it is.
Chelsea
