Survivor Stories & Information

In January 2012, I blacked out and went face first down a complete flight of stairs.  Then with my weight propelling me forward I thump, thump, thumped my way down the rest of the stairs and slid into the bottom of the fridge. Needless to say I was unconscious the …

Hi, my name is Jessica. I am 17 years old, and I have been diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. I am the forth generation to have A.S in my family. My great grandfather had to be wheelchair bound before he died. His daughter (my grandmother) had surgery on both knees and on …

I have been through a lot throughout my life. When I was eight I was molested and raped by a family friend. At 16 I was ganged raped. I was raped again when I was 17 by my so called boyfriend. I went through a lot of counseling throughout my …

As a young girl I was always ill. I was not always sick, I just never felt good. I always had a pain that I could never explain, my body didn’t move like other’s, and people always said that I walked funny. In 1980, I found out I had a …

I was 14 years old when my pain started. I suddenly felt like I was in the body of a 80 year, old-hobbling around. I started seeing sports doctors because I was playing basketball at the time. The only thing that doctor did was inject cortisone to help with the …

I am a 31-year-old woman from Holland. Six years ago, I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. My arthritis has spread to almost all of my joints and I am not able to work. My story however begins many years before. From the time I was 4, I complained about pain; …

Have you ever heard of ankylosing spondylitis (AS)? My guess is no, because I had never heard of it until I was diagnosed with it. AS is an auto-immune disease mixed within a sea of many auto-immune diseases,which most you’ve probably never heard of either. I hesitated when I thought …

My name is Jessica Wright. You can call me Jessie. I was diagnosed with sero-negative rheumatoid arthritis just over a year ago after a long battle of going to doctors for the last 6 years, or a little more than that. I noticed my first symptoms over six years ago. …

I have suffered with psoriatic arthritis for many years but was not diagnosed until 2010. I have problems with my knees and with my hip joints and I am 45 years old. I also found out that same year that I have fibromyalgia in my shoulders. When it is cold …

I grew up in Vermont. In May 1985 I was 10 yrs old. It was the end of the school year. We had what was called field day. All the kids had to be outside and they had sports, activities, a bbq, and even a walk/run thru the woods. In …