Finding A Good Rheumatologist

Hello, and welcome to this episode of The Ankylosing Spondylitis Podcast. Again, the show continues to grow by leaps and bounds and we've now been listened to in 54 different countries. I bring that up and tell you all just to share it with you and let you know that this community of us, all of us with Ankylosing Spondylitis, it's huge and it reaches across the globe. So it's really exciting to see when we get a new country come in and listeners from those countries and then sometimes I even get emails from some of those in different countries. It's really great to see that even though we're spread around the globe. We all come together with this thing called Ankylosing Spondylitis and can relate to it. It really makes it seem like it's not such a small thing that that were so alone. That was really fantastic. And let's jump into the question of the week. This week. I saw a person thinking or discussing that they were having a lot of issues with dealing with the diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis. We've all been there; all of us have processed it in a different way. This particular person was very blunt in their writing, which was very good to see, it meant that they had been thinking about it a lot would be my laypersons opinion, they were upset, they were unhappy with realizing that certain things they used to do with ease, they could not do at least to the same standard anymore. And again, I think we've all been there. I know I have, I look at different things. You know, I used to be able to do this so easy. Now it takes me a Herculean effort to take out the trash, something as mundane as taking out the trash. I am on a cane. I have to do everything one handed because I always have to use that cane to walk and that really presents challenges like even something as simple as I decided I needed to clean off my kitchen counters the other day and just you know, do a standard cleaning and wipe everything down. It takes forever because I can't move everything with just here. I'm playing with this hand, put it over here. I've got a good move everything one handed. And it was really interesting to me that I realized it took me almost two hours to clean the kitchen countertops, not because they were dirty, but because it took me that long just to move stuff clean, wipe it all down and then put everything back and I said that probably would have taken an able bodied person 45 minutes tops to get everything done. So I was certainly able to relate to what she was saying and I know in reading from other posts of other folks that get out there and say, Look, I I'm upset about this or upset about that or I missing doing this or I'm missing doing that, whatever that might be. And it's really just something I think that we kind of have to come to grips with Ankylosing Spondylitis. We have to like it. You can fight it to a degree. Some of us are less affected by as than others but are affected differently. Again, everybody's going to have to go through this process as they kind of grieve for what they used to be able to do. Look forward to what they can do, and how best they can do it. I want everybody to be safe, happy. And it's never good having to deal with this, we have a unique position and that we're dealt a poor hand so to speak, but you have to make the best of it. There are people that care about you want you to be safe, wants you to be happy. So I would encourage you to please reach out to anybody, if you're having a down day, build that support network. We've all been there and we all look to be there for each other. So again, I hope everybody is able to best process this as they deal with AS and what they can and can't do. Get a good therapist if you need assistance that way. There's nothing wrong with that. Talk to priests, Pastor, Minister, therapist, whoever best fits your support network of who's going to be able to be there for you. Some times it's best if you find somebody that has AS as well, because we can...