38 Wairarapa Midweek Lifestyle Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Diagnosed – and feeling like ‘a new person’ Anya Ogden woke up one morning with a sore eye, pain and blurred vision. This eye inflammation at the age of 27 was the necessary evil that finally led to a diagnosis for Anya’s chronic, long term symptoms that had seemingly nothing to do with eyes. From the age of 19 she suffered years of back pain, sore joints, and a painful tailbone. “I popped into my optometrist to have a look at my eye, and he sent me to an ophthalmologist,” she said. “While examining my eyes, he asked if I had ever suffered from back pain. After hearing the link between this particular eye condition, called uveitis, or iritis, and arthritis, it was as if someone had turned on a light in a dark room and suddenly the answer to my chronic pain seemed within reach.” The ophthalmologist referred Anya to see a rheumatologist who diagnosed her with Ankylosing Spondylitis [AS]. AS is a form of inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine and
It was as though I spent 15 years in a body that wasn’t mine. sacroiliac joints of the lower back. Symptoms include chronic back pain and stiffness. It can also cause inflammation, pain, and stiffness in other parts of the body, too, such as shoulders, hips, ribs, heels, hands, and feet. Sometimes the eyes are affected as well, and that’s what led to Anya’s diagnosis. “The reason I think the doctors never diagnosed me before is that the back pain is usually experienced in the morning and eases with movement as the day goes on. That wasn’t the case for me. My pain got worse as the day went on, especially in my tailbone, and so the doctors never considered AS.” For the last six months Anya has been on medication that works and she feels like a new person. “It was as though I spent 15 years in a body
OUR HEALTH, OUR CHOICE!
Anya Ogden with her four children.
that wasn’t mine.” In that time, she became a mum to four young children, including a set of twins. Apart from during three pregnancies and nursing four children after being diagnosed, Anya spent years on strong pain medication. During her child-bearing years, she managed pain and
PHOTO/SUPPLIED
discomfort by using heat pads and warm baths. “People need to hear stories like mine so that we can prevent more people living with undiagnosed conditions,” she said. “If I can change one life by sharing my story, then it was most definitely worth it,” she said. More than 670,000
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LEADERSHIP
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LOCAL
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THREATS
If we don’t maintain services we risk losing them.
COMMUNICATION
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Steffen Bertram
Communication must be maximised to best coordinate hospital and community services.
For Carterton District Council
COORDINATION
“A great little district, let’s keep it that way”
Coordination to optimise collaboration between private and public services.
WELCOMING We must be welcoming for those that may feel uncomfortable accessing our health services e.g. Maori men, troubled teenage boys and Pasifika.
New Zealanders are affected by arthritis. Arthritis Appeal Week started yesterday and continues until Monday, with the main collection day on Friday. Donations can also be made via website www.arthritis.org.nz or people can give $20 by dialling 0900 333 20.
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Authorised by Norman Gray, 1 Milford Downs, Masterton Authorised by Steffen Bertram, 1 Routhan Way, Carterton