You might see me looking different or needing to do things a little bit differently day to day, my key messages for them are more like, I've got it and it's fine.
Interviewer: What's the Reaction You Normally get From People When You Share You Have AS?
I tend to first tell them that I have an autoimmune spinal condition, or I have this hip condition that kind of goes in and out. I usually will reserve sharing the specific diagnoses that I have for people that I'm closer with. I mean, I talk about them on social media, you know, hashtags, mentioning with people that I work with and people that I interact with more casually.
My key messages for them are more like, you might see me looking different or needing to do things a little bit differently day to day. But like, I've got it and it's fine, and I will communicate with you around, hey, there might be sometimes where I need to shift things because of an appointment or because of a flare up.
I just want to be able to have that conversation openly. I think it is also just important to put that out there, so people have heard of it. I think in the context of AS, it has a reputation for being, for whatever reason, a man's disease, and I think it's important to counter some of those stereotypes.