Flares - Know the Symptoms and how I Dealt with Them

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of The Ankylosing Spondylitis Podcast. I hope everybody is doing fantastic, It's been just amazing weather here as we wrap up the summer, can't believe I'm saying that. I am look forward to moving into the fall. I want to take care of a couple of housekeeping things before we get started. If I could get everyone to head over to spondypodcast.com and sign up for the Whenever I Feel Like Sending It Out newsletter, I would really appreciate that. Also, whatever you're listening to on this, whether it be Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, Spotify, whatever, if you can hit the subscribe button so that the show gets delivered right directly to you each time they're published. That would really mean a lot. And then last while you're out there on spondypodcast.com, if you could leave a review for the show. Wow, that would really mean a lot to me. I don't care if you leave it on Apple or Podchasereither one of those two would be fantastic, but I really could use your help to get the word out and if you know somebody who's got Ankylosing Spondylitis or Non-radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis you know, please feel free to share the show with them, send them a link to it, whatever works best to get the message out and get more folks that are dealing with Ankylosing Spondylitis or Non-radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis to be brought into the family and take part in the episodes. I also wanted to let everybody know that I've started a second podcast and it is called Discover Michigan's Thumb. So if you're from anywhere in the world and want to know more about the people, places and things that go on in Michigan's Thumb, the history, the beautiful, you know, Lake Huron, the sunrises, sunsets, all the amazing things that take place here, please head on over to discovermichigansthumb.com and check out the show. I would really appreciate hearing from anybody that's been here before, from out of state, out of country. People that want to come here, you know, it's just a fun and fantastic area with so many things to do from kayaking along the Great Lakes to even just sitting on the beach and relaxing with a book or taking in the historical sites.

So with that, I wanted to go on to today's show, one thing I wanted to discuss and I've seen a lot of conversation generated about it is, "I'm having a flare". What do I do with this flare, it's killing me? I'm feeling so bad, fatigue, everything. I don't know what to do. How do I get help with that? And you know, it's really interesting because flares affect everyone different. And I also help moderate a board on Facebook called Living with Ankylosing Spondylitis. And one of the things I've noticed is there'll be a lot of questions come in on flares and I'm in a flare, I just came out of a flare, you know, whatever the thing is that you're encountering. And we'll also get some questions from folks that have been told in one form or facet that their flares might get less as they age, and what I see Is all of a sudden everybody piles on and says, No, no, you need a new doctor, your rheumatologist is terrible. I have to go in and sometimes remind everybody is that all of our experiences are different and doctors will hand out some very generic information at times. And well, you may experience more pain or a different level of pain or a different level of flares at your age. That doesn't mean everybody does. Some people do experience a tempering of the flares. I can say that for the most part, I haven't had a bad flare in at least five years. Now I do get some pain on occasion. And most of that is helped by being on Cosentyx for the last almost three years, but I have to remind folks and I want to point out that some people will get flares, some people will get a worsening of AS as they go along. Some people might not start