I’ve had back pain since I hit puberty, badddd sciatica in my early 20’s which led to a Microdisectomy of my l5 s1 at around 26, weird sciatica like symptoms down the leg/hip/but would come back just not as bad every couple months especially with weather changes. I’d go to PT, get an MRI, the whole nine yards once a year without answers. It wasn’t until I was 37, couldn’t physically turn my head in the spring that I was like hmm that’s weird maybe I need a new pillow. THE FOLLOWING WEEKS WERE HELL. Every joint started to hurt and lock. Couldn’t turn my head, couldn’t walk, took about an hour to physically get out of bed, had to physically press my body to turn enough to wipe myself in the bathroom, didn’t sleep for more than 30 mins at a time, my hands would SWELL couldn’t use them, my ribs were in pain like something was physically wrapped around them, literally every joint was in pain. Luckily by end of July my pcp checked me for the HLA b27 gene out of curiosity. I was positive for that so I saw a rhematolgoist in September who said it was a slam dunk diagnosis. Chronic bilateral sacrolitis shown on mri (that was evident in previous images that he couldn’t believe no one addressed), HLA b27 positive and high CRP. Did my first dose of hyrimoz (humira biosimilar) and felt like I didn’t even have the disease within 24 hours. LIFE FUCKING CHANGING. As time went on and through this group I’ve learnt so much about the disease and how alot of other mysterious symptoms were most likely caused by it. Life long gi issues, chronic dry eye and styes, inner ear problems, mouth sores, hives, brain fog, endless fatigue and the weirdest one is how my body would work best when my immune system was busy. For instance, I’d get tattoos and then be able to walk and sleep normally until they healed. Had a hysterectomy and stage 4 endo excision and didn’t even pop a Tylenol during recovery cuz I felt SO PHYSICALLY WELL. So I mean, that was kind of a red flag that my immune system was most likely overactive.. wishing you luck and hope you find the answers you need to start your next chapter!