Ankylosing Spondylitis

When I was about 15 years old around the year 2000, I was in a car accident where I had injured my neck and back. After x-rays was taken, I was send for physio-therapy to manage the injury. From that time the pain in my back and neck never seemed to stop. I was always told that it was just muscle spasm so I tried to manage it on my own with spasm medication and muscle patches. Then in the year 2004 I was in another car accident. After this accident I went to different GPs over the next couple of years, x-rays was done multiple times and then the feedback would be that they can’t see anything that was responsible for the pain and the discomfort and that the conclusion was that it was muscle spasm or inflammation. It was finally in the beginning of 2021 that I couldn’t take walking with this constant pain, discomfort, and the limitation of movement that I decided to go to my GP. This was the first time I went to this GP regarding my back problems. He suggested that I go for another X-ray since it was about 6 years I last went for an x-ray. I requested that he rather do an MRI as the x-rays doesn’t seem to show the problem. He sent me for an MRI and CT scan in Feb of 2021 and I was referred to a neurosurgeon who then pre-diagnosed me with Ankylosing Spondylitis. The neurosurgeon had me tested for the HLA-B27 gene and referred me to a rheumatologist where I was finally diagnosed with Ankylosing spondylitis. The rheumatologist then suggested that I need to be treated with biologics. At this stage the treatment was way too expensive and my medical aid did not cover this treatment. So the rheumatologist started treating me with anti-inflammatory and pain medications, which only brought some relieve. It was only later in that year (2021) that I was informed that my medical aid had an Ex-Gratia payment assistance program. I applied for the ex-gratia assistance and was approved and started using Humira biologics from the beginning of 2022, as time went on I was able to reduce on the other medications. At this stage I am currently only using the Humira injections and will only take pain or any other medication when necessary.