Back pain crushing your life? Everyone deserves a fast diagnosis
Are you suffering from persistent low back pain? Has it lasted longer than 3 months?
Is the pain crushing your life or shattering your dreams? Back pain keeping you awake at night?
It could be inflammatory back pain like axial spondyloarthritis also known as axial SpA, a condition that affects 220,000 people in the UK.
Take the first step to regaining control over your life by completing this simple symptom checker. It takes two minutes and could give you optimism again.
Take the symptom checker now and join the 20,000 plus others who have already done so at actonaxialspa.com/symptoms-checker/
What is axial SpA?
Axial SpA is an inflammatory disease of the spine and joints. Inflammation where muscles attach to the bones, causes extreme pain. If left untreated, it can permanently fuse bones together.
It’s an invisible and misdiagnosed condition, often leaving people feeling powerless, in increasing pain and extreme exhaustion.
Why should I take the symptom checker?
If you think you have axial SpA it’s time to take steps towards getting a diagnosis. Read Hannah’s story below on how a quick diagnosis can have a positive impact on managing your pain and controlling your life.
Hannah’s story - "My diagnosis was fast: everyone should have the same experience"
"Since the launch of the Act On Axial SpA campaign, I have read account upon account of people who have waited years and years to be diagnosed and I have felt both grateful that this wasn’t the case for me and very strongly that my path to diagnosis should be the kind we are aiming for everyone with the condition to have."
Since the launch of the Act On Axial SpA campaign, I have read account upon account of people who have waited years and years to be diagnosed and I have felt both grateful that this wasn’t the case for me and very strongly that my path to diagnosis should be the kind we are aiming for everyone with the condition to have.
I think the fact that my physical pain didn’t start until I was 31 and that it came on after a routine visit to a chiropractor helped my GP understand that it wasn’t just “growing pains” or a “sporting injury” which we hear people with axial SpA being dismissed with time and time again.
I was initially diagnosed with a slipped disc and told to take naproxen, to go away and rest and to come back if it didn’t improve. It didn’t improve of course, so when I returned to my GP he sent me for a blood test. My inflammation markers were high which wouldn’t be the case with an injury so he sent me for an MRI scan which showed inflammation in my sacroiliac joint at the bottom of my spine. At this point I was referred to rheumatology and the rheumatologist I saw diagnosed axial SpA within 15 minutes of my appointment starting. The time from initial onset of symptoms to diagnosis was just 5 months.
All this does make it sound like plain sailing but of course that year was pretty terrible. I could sometimes walk only a few steps without being in the worst pain imaginable, I had pain in multiple joints across my body, I was exhausted the whole time, I was waking up as much as ten times per night and my mood was low.
It is unthinkable however that that year could have lasted 5 years or 10 years had I not received my diagnosis so quickly. A fast diagnosis doesn’t just benefit the individual; it also benefits wider society.
I received benefits when first diagnosed and now I am well enough not to need them, well enough because I am on the right medication and am doing the things my body needs to keep the condition under control. I didn’t have to stop working because I was able to adjust my working life to fit around my condition; I knew what was wrong and what I would need longer term.
Don’t hesitate. Take the symptom checker now and join the 20,000 plus others who have already done so at actonaxialspa.com/symptoms-checker/
What are the symptoms?
The main symptoms and characteristics of axial SpA are:
It is also associated with other conditions including acute anterior uveitis (inflamed eyes), psoriasis (skin), and inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s or Ulcerative Colitis).
Already diagnosed with axial SpA?
If you already have a diagnosis, visit the NASS website www.nass.co.uk for information and support, as well as tools for self-management.
About NASS
At NASS we transform the diagnosis and care of people living with axial SpA. Axial SpA works silently. We don’t.
About Act on Axial SpA
The Act on Axial SpA campaign aims to drive down the 8.5 year delay to diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis by introducing the world’s first Gold Standard diagnosis time of just one year.
The campaign is led by NASS in partnership with Norfolk & Norwich NHS Foundation Trust and RUH Bath NHS Foundation Trust and funded by UCB (www.ucbpharma.co.uk).