Matthew Leibowitz
Ankylosing spondylitis

The time between the initial symptoms and the ultimate diagnosis was long for me. I was just a regular kid out of school, first year university, and started getting some shooting pains down the back of my leg. Wasn’t quite sure what it was; thought it was maybe from an accident or sporting injury and it just lingered and lingered. So at the end of ’98 through ‘99 , 2000 just went to various Allied Health professionals, physios. I went to see the doctor to see what was happening, had some scans; nothing really showed up. This went on until 2003 when I was actually in Perth travelling and I had a pretty bad flare-up and I was pretty much unable to get out of bed.