This is a very touching story hits close to home<3with daniel="" having="" p="" this...="">
My name is Kacie and I am 21 years old. I have had problems with AS
since I was 13, but I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was 17, during
the fall of my senior year of high school. While I was growing up, my
life revolved around sports, softball in particular. Nothing brought a
huge smile upon my face like stepping out on the pitcher's mound. The
diagnosis of AS crushed me, especially because I was getting ready to
start my senior year of softball. On the other hand, it was very
relieving to know that there was actually something wrong with me and
that I wasn't just crazy. It was really weird to talk about at first; I
would always get the typical "doesn't that only happen to older people?"
responses.
I am now in my senior year of college. I am studying applied mathematics
and I am hoping to start graduate school next fall. College has
definitely been an interesting experience for me. When I first started, I
just liked to ignore the fact that I had AS and still tried to do
everything everyone else was doing. I wanted nothing more than to fit
in. For the longest time I didn't tell many people, but as my AS
progressed I had to explain to my friends why I couldn't always partake.
I took it very poorly when people didn't understand; looking back now,
how could I expect a bunch of 18 year olds to understand? But I am
forever grateful for the friends that did.
I have spent the last 6 months without a biologic. Prior to that I was
on Humira for a brief time, after I had shingles my doctor switched me
to Remicade. I was taking Remicade and Methotrexate for about 9 months.
It definitely helped my AS a ton, but I was constantly sick and I just
couldn't take it anymore. It was rough missing a lot of school, but I
couldn't be more grateful to the awesome professors I have had.
Currently I am on Celebrex, Prednisone and Sulfasalezine and I am doing
the best that I have been in about 4 years.
I definitely struggled for a little while, but I definitely came out on
top. I have an awesome family, two very caring parents and two awesome
sisters. This might seem strange but I think AS has affected my life in
more positive ways than negative ways. It probably has been one of the
biggest influences in shaping the person that I am today and I can't say
I would change that. My newest philosophy is to make the best of what
the situation is and I try not to spend too much time getting down or
upset about something that is out of my control to change. You are never
alone :)
Greenbay, Wisconsin United States of America
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