7. One & Two Years On - How I'm Winning The Fight Against Ankylosing Spondylitis

January 28, 2017 & January 7, 2018 updates.

It's been just over a year since My First Post about my battle with an aggressive and incurable disease Ankylosing Spondylitis, (A.S), and Although the war is far from over, I can confirm the latest. I'm winning.  I have less pain all over. 30 degrees more rotation in my neck. I still can't touch my toes, but I can bend down 8 inches further, and pick things from the floor without holding on, but still in pain. I have gained 2 kilos in weight (muscles). Lower leg muscles and back have improved and agiler. 

Having said that, If a healthy individual woke up today with the pain my body still feels, They'd call 911 while scrambling for the medicine cabinet grabbing the nearest pain killers. For me, the pain and stiffness are 'nothing' compared to how I was. 

http://theonlywayproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/inspiration-to-ditch-your-medication.html

If I never had to train so hard each day doing up to 10.000 repetitions each day, the smiley face above would have been a big fat grin. Nevertheless, it's all positive and progress, and the way things are going, I estimate that within one more year, I 'will' be grinning from ear to ear.

My last goals - to get through the pain barrier of my upper leg muscles. To have less pain in my.back. To be more agile and stronger, and to have more rotation of my neck, to become healthier, happier, confident, strong and outgoing again which I am slowly achieving.

When I first started my fight, I never knew if I'd be causing 'more' damage than good by training so rigorously each day. Every painful repetition done is the equivalent of someone trying to get rid of a painful bruise or cut by continually pressing, poking and prodding, harder and harder hoping it will go. - or digging a deep hole hoping there would be light at the end. That's exactly what it takes. Luckily for me, the pain is less, and I see the light.

I will 'never' underestimate the power of Ankylosing Spondylitis, and how it 'will' take over the body - if you let it. 

Stop adapting your home around your disabilities.

• You have to learn to 'un-adapt' by walking up and down the stairs instead of using lifts and escalators.
• Crutch, walking stick and wheelchair users need to put more pressure on their joints and less on walking aids.
• Stop using hand rails to fully support you. If you use your right arm because the left hurts too much, start using the left arm again but do it very slowly adding more weight and pressure as time goes by. Keep doing this.
• Those items you previously placed in your home to an easier height, move them back to a harder place to reach. Any mugs, glasses or ash trays you use, place them in a position which is the hardest to reach. They soon get easier.
• If your left leg/hip/knee hurts more than the right, meaning you use the right more - stop, and start using the left again. Introduce weight bearing exercises. It will hurt and become more painful, but no pain no gain.

When training, I have the mindset of an athlete. When stretching, I think like a contortionist. Never-ending room for improvement.

Nutrition. If you've read my posts about the correct diet and nutrition for bones and joints, you'll discover how important it is to combine weight bearing training with the correct (bespoke) nutrition.

It's the resilience, perseverance, patience and confidence in me and my achievements that keep me fighting. I hope everything I have said from my Introduction to today's post will give anyone out there who's suffering 'unnecessarily' the confidence to follow my painful footsteps.

Factoids

An adult human uses 200 muscles to take 1 step.

 A human skeleton renews itself completely and utterly every 10 years.
I had over 250 different symptoms to deal with. Now, I only have about 20 - 40.

Any progress I hope to make will be posted below. January 2018. I say hope, because the body contains over 200 bones, 4000 tendons, 600 muscles, 360 joints, and over 900 ligaments, and anything can happen - after all, I'm only human.

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November 2017. If anyone's here, I just had to pop by and say, things are going fantastically. well. So far, so very good. I will reveal all in January.

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January 7, 2018 updates. WOW. Its been a quite a journey. Painful but very successful. I've had my set-backs including a shoulder and knee injury which have totally cleared up. My training has now become so pleasurable compared to the initial intolerable. My spine and back is more flexible and stronger. I can actually pick things off the floor without holding on to anything although my upper-leg muscles are weak which I'm working on.

The secret to success is no secret. It's just training, stretching and consuming the correct nutrients needed that I wrote about in my previous posts (1-6 below), plus, positive thoughts, and being stress-free. I have come a very long way, and there's still a long way to go.

Training 24/7, its no exaggeration. For example, just standing at the sink or cooker, I have twelve different leg exercises to choose from - I've also become like a tourette suffer. Instead of uncontrollable swearing, I have uncontrollable exercising - while trying to sleep I suddenly notice I've been doing shoulder shrugs for the last 10 minutes without even realising which is all good. Doing DIY and home repairs, anything to keep busy and moving while at home.

I do everything within my power to straighten my body, aside from placing a noose around my neck and hanging from it.

Tracking progress. For example, My bending-over toe-touches are done with a ruler in-between my fingers to ensure this back-breaking exercise is progressing successfully. Side bends are done with a stick which is marked with a pen to ensure progress.

I have updated the "Standing Tall Training technique in my previous post", and any new back and neck stretches are still never completed without the sound of cracks and crunches in my spine and neck, which equals progress. I did resort to taking a 'quarter' of an anti-inflammatory drug every day for only two weeks which did help when I had knee-swelling and a shoulder injury. The pills also helped while doing my back and waist training.

Keeping moving and active as much as possible is key. Never sitting down, unless I have too and when I do, it has to be a firm L-shaped chair.

My body is not just upright 'straight', I can now bend backwards (slightly) but improving. Now, I manage the pain, not the pain managing me. My hips and shoulders, I could couldn't make them hurt if I wanted to.
Statistics for my progress.  Stretching every part of the body everyday. Weight-bearing training and physical activities like dancing, circuit training etc - this is working for me. As well as fuelling the body with the correct nutrients I wrote about. And to avoid being stressed. I never realised how much stress would contribute to this disease literally crippling me at times, and to avoid anyone, or doing anything that causes it. Being 100% stress free and having a positive out-look of life.

This A.S disease, and everything bundled with it slowly turned my once stocky muscular build into a slim, thin, skinny then skeletal one - I'm now athletic-build, and slowly becoming muscular and heavier.

My mojo's back. People are treating me normal again. Strangers going out their way to converse with me compared to previously avoiding me when I was underweight and crippling along in pain. People are inviting me to events again which I've yet to accept.

Goals, I am healthier, fitter, stronger, more agile, assertive and confident. Am I happier? Yes, somewhat. They say, money cannot even buy happiness. As long as I'm healthy and pain-free, that's absolutely fine with me. Perhaps I've other areas of my life I need to work on - Getting back into full time employment is a necessity, and socialising again.

Basic Principles: The five S's
1. Stretching every part of the body. 2. Strengthening - weight-bearing training every part of the body. 3. Shock absorption - the pounding of feet on the ground. Jogging and jumping up-and-down -the pounding and kicking a punch-bag and football. 4. Speed - the ability to move quickly and easily. 5. Stamina - having the heart (cardiovascular health) to perform them regularly with ease.

As for the 'escalator analogy' above. When I had my temporary set-back, trying to 'step-up' the 'downward' moving escalator became much harder, dragging me back down. Now I'm back on the up. The speed of escalator is slower, the steps seem lower, and I'd happily walk 'up' the downward-moving, and walk 'down' the upward-moving escalator which is now a walk-in-the-park.

10,000 steps!?

Were told to walk at least 10,000 steps per day which is all good. But with A.S and other bone, joint and muscle problems, performing at least 10,000 reps (repetitions) a-day is a must.

I still look up-to, and respect this stubborn disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis, but inside, I smile in the face of it - I'm in control now - this battle IS being won, the only problem... whenever I decide to take time-out, the A.S keeps on fighting, but thankfully, not as aggressively as I'm steps ahead.

I will update my progress January 7, 2019 right here. 

1. Introduction. Reversing My Ankylosing Spondylitis, Arthritis & Other Joint Symptoms.

2. Journey / History & All Symptoms. How long I have been suffering for. How it changed my life for the worse, and why I made the decision to fight back.

3. Medical Reports, and results of my X-rays, Ultra sound and MRI scans. 

4. First Year - Beginning Of Exercise Routine - Painful, Progressive & Positive.

4A Detailed Training Program. Dozens of exercise routines, thousands of repetitions for hours each day, and the best places to do them for maximum results.

5. Nutrition Information. Diet and important supplementary products I now take daily. 

6. Testimonials from medical professionals who knew how much pain and stiffness I was in.

7. One & Two Years On. How I am winning my fight against Ankylosing Spondylitis.

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