GETTING DIAGNOSED
SUPER: Noel Ankylosing Spondylitis Patient
NOEL: I was experiencing pain in my hips and the sacroiliac joints and it would kind of change from left side to rightside. It would last you know, maybe a week or two at a time.
SUPER: Noel first had symptoms in his hips and sacroiliac joints
Cut to Sarah SUPER: Sarah Ankylosing Spondylitis Patient
SUPER: AS can take several years to diagnose
NOEL, continued: It was come and go, never got extremely severe but, you know, there were actually periods of several years where I never felt anything. And I believe that that was most likely some early symptoms.
SUPER: Symptoms can appear in areas beyond the lower back
NOEL, continued: What finally got me thinking that there’s something more was a rather sudden onset of pain in my lower back and hips.
Cut to Sarah
NOEL, continued: Physically, I was extremely tired. I was not sleeping through the night to any great extent.
SUPER: Fatigue is a common symptom
NOEL, continued: You know, cumulative fatigue just continued to build and…
Cut to Noel
NOEL, continued: ... all of a sudden, I was mad at myself, you know: Why can’t I keep up with what I was before?
SUPER: Seeing a rheumatologist is an important step to getting a diagnosis
NOEL, continued: And that point I went to see my primary care doctor and we started off several months of investigation for referrals in order to finally, eventually, end up at a rheumatologist.
INTERTITLE: How did you feel after you were diagnosed with AS?
Cut to Noel, then Sarah reacting
SUPER: Many people have never heard of ankylosing spondylitis (AS)
NOEL: So, when my rheumatologist first mentioned that I had AS, I had to ask him, “What is that?” It was a word I’d never heard of before. You know, and I think the unknown just provoked fear instantly.
Cut to Noel and Sarah (reacting)
SUPER: A diagnosis can bring mixed emotions
NOEL, continued: There was this shock of what, you know, is this something that’s life threatening? How will it change my life?
What will I not be able to do? All these questions that came up and initially it was a very scary moment.
Cut to Noel
NOEL, continued: How was your experience when you were first diagnosed?
Cut to Sarah
SUPER: It can be a relief to finally have a diagnosis
SARAH: For me, it was kind of a relief to have a name to what was going on for me because…
Cut to Sarah B-roll
SARAH, continued: …basically, they didn’t have a definitive answer to what was going on.
Cut to Sarah
SARAH, continued: So, it felt good to be able to like kind of say like this is what it is and now here’s our treatment/kind of plan.
Cut to Sarah and Noel
SARAH, continued: And it felt good to be able to tell people, “Here, this is what’s going on for me; this is what I have.” It’s a definite as opposed to just kind of a kind of nebulous concept.
NOEL: Yeah. That’s an excellent perspective and I would agree with you there that I felt like it was…
SARAH: Yeah, it’s nice to know what it is.
SUPER: Diagnosis led Noel to learn about AS...
NOEL: Yeah. It was also…now it gave me something to actually learn about.
SUPER: ... and seek appropriate treatment
SARAH: Yeah, a jumping-off point.
NOEL: To research. Exactly.
END CARD: Talk to an AS specialist. Find a rheumatologist today >