Ankylosing Spondylitis - any of you have that? how common is it among "us"

[23109VC]

I'm 38.  My left hit is being resurfaced late Feb. by Dr. Gross.  It hurts 24/7.  It has been a nuisance/annoyance for the past decade, but I woudl say the last 2-3 years have been much more noticeably worse / limiting...  5 years ago, I just couldn't play hard impact sports without "paying for it"  the next day.. i could do stuff..bu it would hurt a ton the  next day...  I fiirst sought an orthopedic person maybe 10-12 years ago for tightness that I had been dealing with in my hip... I just kept being told I had early signs of arthritis... avoid impact sports, etc etc...    I gave up running / jogging 4-5 years ago b/c it hurt too  much.  I could actually run 2-3 miles as recently as 4-5 years ago...  now.. forget it.  i could limp/hobble if I needed to, but actual joggin is not happening. I can still do the stairmaster... the limited range of motion and lack of impact allows me to still do it, but it has some discomfort.  I can swim, but I can tell that I can' really kick hard with my left leg.. I favor my arms and right leg when I swim.... 

I was at work the other day and was scheduling something with another attorney I had a new case with.  I was going over why I wasn'ta ble toa ccomodate any dates in late april and mentioned I had upcoming surgery... I told the guy it was nothign life threatening.just orthopedic surgery and he asked what it was.. when I told him story he said he had lots of hip pain and said he had been diagnosed with AS.

i had never heard of it.  I googled it right there in court and read up on it...  some of it sounded like me some did not. it sounded lke AS was associated with lots of lower back pain, which I have NONE of. 

it sounded like there is a blood test you can do to figure out if this is going on in your body. I was suprised no doctor had ever even brought it up... maybe I clearly don't fit the criteria....  my next appt with my local doctor i'm going to ask about it.  one positive is that it sounded like some of the joint damaged cuased by AS is allergic based and you can basically avoid the stuff that caues the inflamation... probably nothign that will help or revesrse the damage already caused by the point you figure it out.. but you can at least avoid the bad foods/things and stop any further damage.

i was just curious what you all have heard about this - have any of you been diagnosed with it? 

google it if you have never heard of it

my doc and Dr. Gross seemed to think my problem was some kind of misalignment of my bones.. but I've also never asked anyone about this and been told WHY I would NOT have it...   

jsut thought I'd see wha tyou all know/heard about this and if anyone here has it and whether their symptoms / etc fit the "profile" like wikipedia talks about or if there are cases where someone with ONE bad hip, and NO backpain could have this?

thanks.