Body Beautiful

This is a post that I’ve tried to write three or four times over the last year. It’s a difficult one to cover as it’s opening up more than I usually do. This is not however a post asking for sympathy, just a way to explain a bit about some of the “invisible” effects of AS.

A couple of my friends have posted on Facebook about body image in the gay community. It’s one of the things that I don’t think gets talked about enough, actually men’s body image isn’t talked about in general. We talk about the impossibly high standards set for women (and we absolutely should, they’re often ridiculous) but men are kind of left out of the discussion.

I saw the sign…

I hope you all know by now that May is Walk Your AS Off month, dedicated to raising awareness of Ankylosing Spondylitis. But I don’t just think of it as raising awareness of the people who are living with it and diagnosed, I think that it’s more important to raise awareness to the people who have it and don’t realise it.

Looking around the interwebs I found this article, which is quite useful. It helps put the idea of AS as a chronic, degenerative, autoimmune condition that primarily affects the spine into real world terms.

None of these are 100%, they’re just indicators that something is wrong. If you tick off some or all of these signs go and see your doctor for an actual diagnosis. Even after showing all the symptoms for a very long time there was still some doubt whether I had Ankylosing Spondylitis or Scheuermann’s disease. The five signs that it mentions are:

I have an admission to make. I’m bent.

Could you do me a favour please? If you’re looking at this from a computer, would you mind taking your mobile (that’s cell phone for anyone over the other side of the Atlantic). Now stand up and look at it while you hold it at stomach height. Let your shoulders slump forward and put your phone down.

Thank you. Now can you feel that pressure on the back of your neck? The heaviness of your head? The strain across your shoulders? I’m sorry, I know it’s uncomfortable but please bear with me – there’s a point coming…

Now, staying in that position stand up and walk around the room, you need to keep that bend in your neck even when looking forward. Again, I’m sorry that it’s uncomfortable, it might even hurt a little and I’m truly sorry about that. I know how you feel. Please get comfortable, shake yourself off, roll your head.