Woke up feeling pretty bad.
I actually slept quite well considering and I think I only woke up maybe 3 or 4 times in the night.
Nothing like as bad as when this thing peaked a few weeks ago.
On immediately waking up I would say the ankylosing spondylitis pain was about a 6 or 7 out of 10.
It’s on the right side again but then I’ve also got that kind of weird internal somewhat ethereal aching sensation. It’s around my waist and hips and very slightly on my upper left back.
It’s almost as if the ibuprofen is doing nothing at the moment and having zero impact. I finding that quite scary because it’s always been effective in the past.
Kat made me a smoothie without bananas in it this morning but she replaced it with loads of yoghurt instead.
I guess that’s my fault for saying that I would wait a week before cutting out dairy. It does taste delicious that I’m now sitting here anxiously waiting to see if I’m going to have more pain soon.
I did take some Ibuprofen as well because I’m going to need it I think until this flare completely goes away.
I read some of Carol Sinclair’s book when I went to sleep last night and again this morning. It is really really good and on point and she describes exactly how I feel with it. I’m hoping this book is going to be really helpful.
It’s another great looking day today. I wonder if that old wives tale about wet weather and windy grey skies affecting arthritis is true. Apparently we’re in for a heatwave in June so I guess that’s going to give me some evidence either way.
It just occurred to me that the antibiotics I took after my shoulder surgery may have wiped out some of the bacteria I needed in my gut.
That combined with my then massive intake of carbs and starch may have messed up the balance which could be why I’m seeing such progression of the AS.
It’s been about half an hour since I ate breakfast and I don’t feel as bad as I did yesterday after having breakfast. I’m hoping this because there was no banana in my smoothie.
My tummy is definitely better today too.
I ordered some apple cider vinegar, iodine solution and those mini packs of freeze gel as well as some probiotics. Apparently the probiotics may be helpful for people with ankylosing spondylitis although there’s not loads of evidence.
It seems like it’s worth giving a shot though. The apple cider vinegar thing is another kind of old wives tale surrounding ankylosing spondylitis that I can’t see any harm in giving a go.
I have definitely lost weight since taking this diet.
I had hoped that my beer belly would go down, and it sort of has, but not in a very uniform way. It’s starting to flatten in a kind of ski slope fashion at the moment.
One fairly obvious marker is that so I just had to drill another hole in my belt.
My black jeans which normally didn’t need any belt wearing at all felt loose with the existing one which I already had another hole drilled into.
Now I’ve had to add another and take off an inch. So feels like already maybe I’ve lost an inch and a half or slightly more off my waist.
Headed out for a walk into the grey wind. The right side of my pelvis is hurting but it’s probably only about a 3 out of 10 now. The stiffness isn’t too bad today.
My cough however is really bad this morning and it’s driving me mad. I’m wondering whether the cough is from the dairy. I had huge amount of yoghurt in my breakfast this morning so this could be causing me both back pain and a chesty cough. I kind of hope so because it’s an easy one to eliminate.
Right now at this very moment at 11:22 am I have noticed that I have 0 pain in my back for the first time in days.
I am just by those little bars on the canal near Hackney Wick and I just noticed I wasn’t noticing my back which is a wonderful feeling.
The sun has just burst into the sky as if to celebrate and part of me can’t help wondering whether the absence of the wet weather and the humidity is helping.
The only slight discomfort I’m experiencing is the stiffness on my back but I’m guessing that’s the same stiffness I’ve had for years.
It’s probably the same stiffness I’m going to have to learn to live with from now on but I can cope with that.
My chest feels fine, my pelvis feels fine and everything else feels ok right now.
Is it the diet? Is it the weather? Is it that my flares were just naturally due to ease up? I don’t know but I’m going to keep on with the diet.
I had radish in my lunch today. I’ve only just realised that it is a fringe food for the diet.
To be honest I don’t feel great now. I don’t know if it’s because I was sitting in my chair too long or it’s because of what I ate at lunch.
I don’t think the radishes would have done too much damage. I did have tomato ketchup and I know tomatoes are on the fringe list as well.
Maybe the pudding is a bad idea but it was the last of the almond flour cake. I had loads of yoghurt cream with it so once I remove that from my diet I should have a really clear idea of what’s working or not.
At the moment I’ve cut down a lot of starch but I’ve also chucked in excessive amounts of fringe foods which could be causing problems.
When I stood up to go go for my walk to the opticians I noticed that there was a bit of a pain in my right pelvis again. I took my vitamins and two more ibuprofen so I hope that will help.
I noticed that my hips were feeling a little bit odd as well which was again another reason why I took the ibuprofen. I think I really really need to just blitz this particular flair and then be quite militant about the diet including all the fringe foods.
So I’ve gone from feeling on top of the world to feeling a bit less excited about stuff.
I’ve still got the chair to look forward to that will be a big thing.
I can’t slip into an existence where I’m literally spending all day exercising just to try and stop the pain.
The optician was a charming guy and I can see why he get such good reviews. I told him that I was mainly coming because of my ankylosing spondylitis and just wanted to check everything was ok.
I did all the tests and he said absolutely fantastic you eyes are perfect so I’m not worried about you at all.
One thing is that he did say I had bletherin something. I started to worry momentarily but it was basically it just means crusty eyelashes.
He said to sort that out all I needed to do was get some Johnson’s baby shampoo and a flannel or something abrasive and just lightly rub it on the eyelashes. If I do that once a week that should solve the problem apparently.
He said that if I do have uveitis I would know about it it would be incredibly painful and bloodshot.
Now that I’m writing this now I’m wondering whether I had that when I was 18 or 19 as that was a period when I used to get bloodshot eyes all the time for no reason.
That would make sense but then he said it was quite a problematic thing and he would be sending me straight to hospital if I did have it. The treatment seems to be steroids.
Feeling more positive again now, it has been a yo-yo day.
When I got home my back felt pretty good. As I’m writing it now I’ve been sat down at my computer for maybe 2 hours or more and it could feel worse to be honest it really just feels like it probably has done for the last couple of years. A bit sore on the right hand side of the pelvis but nothing that’s going to kill me.
I was reading that over three-quarters of people with arthritis report that changes in the weather weather really affects their arthritis.
This article seem to be suggesting that there is a study which confirms this somehow.
Interesting stuff. I’ve got so many ideas for the website because I’m looking online and I’m finding it hard to get the information that I want on ankylosing spondylitis.
Hopefully I could really help with this and raise awareness specifically around the diet and other bits.
Just realised that now that I found out I’ve probably got ankylosing spondylitis I’ll get early vaccinations in future so that has to be a silver lining.
I booked a massage at Fix-It London in East village for Friday afternoon. I’m really looking forward to that because I know it’s helped my back in the past and whenever I go to an osteo or physio the best bit is where they massage you.
Massages are expensive but if I did one massage session and one acupuncture session a month maybe that would put me in good stead with my back.
Add to that my walking exercise and the stretches I should be doing and most importantly the diet and I will feel like I’ve got a really good plan for this thing.
I can’t let this bloody thing beat me and I can’t believe I’ve let it get this bad but then I never knew what it was. I can’t be myself up because that’s not helpful.
Dinner was nice and Kat made cauliflower rice which was absolutely delicious. It’s something I definitely definitely want to eat more of because I think I actually prefer it to normal rice.
I’m pretty sure it’s something I’m allowed to eat on the diet although I read somewhere that some people avoid it. I’m going to stick with it for now because I really need some things I can eat and I think the most people are absolutely fine with it. It certainly seems to be fine on the London diet.
I felt like I was fidgety in my chair all evening and and I’m not doing great at the moment but I’m also not in a terrible amount of pain. I’d say sitting down I was kind of a 3 and that was mainly the discomfort of constantly having to shuffle around to get comfortable.
Before bed I munched on some salami that I bought from co-op earlier and then decided I would try out some of these exercises that I’ve been putting off for so long.
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