in 2016 at the age of 33, but I’d been managing its excruciating pain for years. Yet even at my worst, most people who knew me didn’t realize what was going on. AS isn’t like other forms of arthritis, like osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, where you can usually see swelling of the joints. With AS, there are often no physical signs. You can’t see a person’s immune cells attacking their body.
Yet my students and co-workers never suspected anything. I didn’t want my kids to feel worried and concerned, so I never let on that I was in pain. I became a master at hiding my emotions. My students never asked me why I didn’t sit at my desk. The truth was I didn’t dare. Once I was in the classroom by myself getting ready, and I took one step after getting up from the chair and fell to the floor sobbing in pain. There was no way I was going to let them see that happen.