BRANDY

[00:00:15]
I'm Brandy and I take CIMZIA to help with my nr-axSpA symptoms. I had back pain and hip pain for a number of years and always treated it situationally. Even though I was taking a steroid shot every six months, I was still in a lot of pain.

[00:00:38]
I knew it was not like a normal late 30 year-old should be. The hardest parts of my day were waking up and figuring out if it's going to be a good day or is it going to be a bad day. Is it going to be a day where I can make it to my desk? Because I can walk using walls or is it a day where I'm going to have to go get out my hideous cane.

[00:01:08]
I really like to cook. I'm constantly thinking about techniques and those type of things. I would have loved to be able to stand at the stove and cook a risotto. I could not do it. The other really bad part about this is the fatigue. In the middle of my workday afternoon had to go take a nap.

[00:01:33]
I had reached a boiling point. I was begging someone to take me seriously. It's really my girlfriend's urging that said, “I can tell you're still in pain, I can tell it when you walk. You're not comfortable standing at all. We just need to make a change. I know this is your third doctor but something's still wrong.” And so that's when I went to my doctor that I have now he’s a rheumatologist. He's amazing.

[00:02:00]
He said, “I can tell you right away you have spondyloarthropathy.” And I said, “A what?” And he wanted to run more tests. But the next time I saw him he said you have non radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. Having a diagnosis made me light years better. Just knowing that someone really thought, “I might be able to help you.”

[00:02:30]
Since I've taken CIMZIA, my back pain has lessened significantly. Hip pain is almost non existent. I'm able to do now the things that I want to do without enormous levels of stiffness that I feel like I can't function. That's really what this medicine has done for me is changed people taking care of me now I'm back to taking care of people. Pain is no longer my constant companion.

[00:03:03]
My advice is be honest with your doctor. Talk to them about what's working and what's not working. You know how you feel and somebody else should too.

BETH

[00:00:17]
Hey, I'm Beth and I take CIMZIA to help manage my symptoms within our accident. I was a dancer all through grade school, all through high school, all through college. That was very cool.

[00:00:30]
And it quickly became who I was. Like, I was a dancer. That was my purpose. And I actually started teaching and that quickly became where I felt most complete. I had had lower back pain for so long and lower back pain makes sense for a dancer. I started having pain that was unfamiliar. It was completely new.

[00:01:00]
I was so exhausted from dealing with the pain. I had gone to the urgent care already two times over the last month and got seen by a PA. I was sent to a rheumatologist from the PA. That's when I realized what I knew to be my future what I knew to be who I was. My body was not going to allow that to happen.

[00:01:25]
It just really showed me that this was a turning point that I needed to be able to take control of instead of continuing down this path. While trying to find out just what was going on with me, there was this recurring theme of not getting enough information. I was even fired by one of my doctors for asking too many questions. But I know my body and I knew this pain was different than anything I'd known before

[00:01:51]
So I kept pushing. My back pain was cause for concern for about 10 years before I figured out this is something that can be named and managed. After trying to find answers for so long I was finally diagnosed with nr-axSpA and prescribed CIMZIA. In time, the medication started working on my symptoms and I was able to pick back up the momentum for my life.

[00:02:24]
I'm still present in my life and that's something I'm managing versus me being in pain and seeking to be present with my family and the rest of my life. My advice to others within our expo would be to trust your gut and be your own advocate.

[00:02:48]
Just continue to stay firm in your own sense of self and truth and navigate as far as you have to until someone will meet you there versus letting doctors say or letting any kind of practitioner say, “Oh it's probably just.” Let's get to an answer and have the questions that you have answered.