A.S. Face 0730: Eva Carey
My name is Eva Carey, I am 20 from Stoke-On-Trent, England.
9 Months ago I got diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. I found your website by lying awake not being able to sleep feeling exhausted from this disease and searching on the internet for help and to see if someone else was feeling the way I was feeling – frustrated. I was happy to find your website and to read many stories from people that have been suffering the same way I am. I don’t feel alone any more as I feel as a person with this disease most of the time. I feel a lot of people don’t understand what I am going through or even acknowledge the challenges I face every day. They just say, “Things will get better” or “your just having a bad day”. I suffered from depression when I was 14 and sometimes with having this disease and having Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, I find myself sometimes drifting back into it. I ate nothing but plain pasta by itself nearly everyday of my life because I was too scared to try different foods and explore and as you can imagine it was not doing anything great for my health.
It took 12 years to diagnose my AS, This consisted of many years in and out of the hospital which consisted of poking and prodding, followed by countless blood tests, MRI scans, X rays and even ultra sound scans on my fingers/wrists to my toes/ankles. Many people thought I was over exaggerating and did not understand at all the pain that I was in but it finally got diagnosed after just turning 20.
I study Ba(Hons) Photography at Falmouth University in Cornwall which is 280 miles from my much known life in Stoke-On-Trent. Since being there I have discovered who I am and that this disease is just part of me and not to let it define any longer than it already has. I am writing to you now saying that I have almost completed my second year of University and that I have come to terms with my illness and finally have the guts to research it and how to improve my life. I have put myself down for Yoga and Pilates classes. I have changed my diet – which now has plenty dairy in. I am trying to improve the way I sleep but that is difficult as I cant help but lye on my side sometimes.
I want to thank you for making this website as I now know that I am not alone and I am no longer afraid to talk about it. I now know why I am so sleepy and sometimes a little lazy. Why I cant put socks on proply and why I much prefer a bath to a shower.
So this is my story and I hope other people can read it and think that they are not alone too. No mater how sad they may feel or frustrated to how stiff and in pain they are… there are other people. There are just some days where I just can’t walk, but I tell you what, it makes me that bit more thankful for the days I can walk (which is a lot more since I have been diagnosed and accepted I have to change my routine of life). I am inter railling round Europe in the summer and I finally feel ready to do this because of my medication and change of life.
Thank you once again,
From a very happy changed Eva
England, United Kingdom
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