Joint Journey — Jemma Newman

If you have ankylosing spondylitis (AS) like me, you might prefer to avoid real-life seminars, even though you’d love to know the latest findings about managing AS. Just picturing sitting for hours with a stiff and aching back on the uncomfortable chairs of a drafty hall to watch…

“Geez, my back’s getting worse,” I muttered to myself as I took a break midway on my walk around the park near my house in Perth, Australia. Pulling the protruding white earbuds from my ears, I paused the chattering voices on my podcast. Gently digging my thumbs into my lower…

You’d think that because ankylosing spondylitis (AS) affects joints internally, clothes wouldn’t make much difference. But I despise certain garments when I’m having an AS flare and my sacroiliac joints, spine, or rib cage are inflamed and painful. Picture for a minute that I’m standing at the…

Craning my head back, I surveyed the wood and metal structure towering over us. “Come on, Mum, let’s climb it together!” my two kids, ages 5 and 7, shrieked in excitement. Tightening the straps of my heavy backpack over my shoulders, I nodded and grinned back at them as we…

A twinkly-eyed lady with a hospital name tag whisked the clinical dove-gray curtain along its track, giving the two of us some privacy from the rest of the ward. But don’t worry, I wasn’t in the hospital for an invasive procedure, or because of a new problem with my…

Lifting his toothbrush toward his mouth, my husband, Dave, grimaced in pain. “Elbow still bothering you?” I asked, although I already knew that his elbow and shoulders had been causing him increasing discomfort for months. You’d think a tiny, almost weightless thing like a toothbrush shouldn’t be painful to…

I’ve heard of plenty of different triggers that people believe have caused the onset of their ankylosing spondylitis (AS) symptoms, but I’d never considered mold as a possible culprit until a recent online conversation. One of my favorite AS Facebook groups raised the question of whether mold…

I have strange, recurring nightmares about being stuck in a retirement home (or sometimes a prison — I have no idea why!) and being unable to handle the back pain from my ankylosing spondylitis (AS). In the nightmare, I’m lying on a bed or sitting on a hard…

Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with liquid magnesium. Not everyone will have the same response to treatments and supplements. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy or supplement. What a lovely feeling to wake up feeling refreshed, hop out of bed, and shimmy around the…

The 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” has a scene in which actress Cameron Diaz enthusiastically jumps out of bed and proceeds to start dancing, wiggling her bottom, and leaping around the room with an enormous grin. Diaz’s energetic morning moves are the opposite of how I got out of…

“Your insides are garbage,” a doctor irritably declares in the first episode of the Netflix series “Wellmania.” The doctor is speaking to the main protagonist, Liv Healy, a fast-living, overly stressed, 39-year-old food critic. Liv has just been through a massive health crisis, but can’t seem to understand…

I recently had a breakthrough moment during a job interview, when I proudly announced that, “I have an autoimmune disease called ankylosing spondylitis. In fact, I write a weekly column about it!” I was perched on a sofa across from the owner of the company, discussing my life…