The story of Dennis
My story starts when I was around 6 years old I was diagnosed with Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease a rare disease of the hips. I had to wear braces with a bar in between my legs until my bones regenerated in my hips. Then when I was 18 I started to have back and hip pain. Over the next 16 years the pain became more widespread traveling to my neck, shoulders, arms, legs and feet. Then about 5 years ago I started to develope multipliable skin, eyes and stomach issues. After being seen by multiple different dr with no real explanation I finally made my way to the correct dr’s only because of my own research I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. The year following that diagnosis I started to have heart related issues which lead me to find out I have SVT and Pulmonary Hypertension. But during this time my skin issues continued to get worse and I started to get widespread recurring oral ulcers which lead me to be diagnosed with Behçet’s Disease just last month. I’m am now 37 years old and have gone through a long road to get to where I am. I now am a representative for the International Foundation For Autoimmune Arthritis(IFAA) a patient lead nonprofit organization that is involved in patient center research.