Arthritis so young

I am a 34 year old fairly healthy woman. I have had severe low back pain for about 10 years.  I did not injure myself or fall. Xrays and MRI have shown I have no cartilage between a couple of my vertabrae. An orthopeodist diagnosed me with arthritis. It does run in my family although he said it's rare for someone my age to have it. The pain is only on my left side and sometimes goes down to my thigh.  On a scale of 1-10 my pain is never lower than 4 with 7 being average. It is worsened by sitting or standing too long. I have found no medication that helps. Physical therapy and injections have not helped either.  I have now noticed arthritis in my knees, shoulder and elbow that is becoming pretty bad too.  I'm really frustrated about this and don't really know what to do next since I have tried most everything. I thought I saw ankylosing spondylitis on some medical paperwork of mine. Do this sound like AS? Will it ever get better?

[leahmichele]

I'm so sorry about your pain.I too was dx with arthritis in the spine.,Along with anterolisthesis(L5 slippage).AS is the fusing of your spine I don't think so but there are tests to tell if you have markers that would point to it.They say it's hereditary.Be strong unfortunately I've been on those forums for AS and some of them go years without proper dx.Hopefully your dx won't be that bad.
                                GOOD LUCK

[leahmichele]

I'm so sorry about your pain.I too was dx with arthritis in the spine.,Along with anterolisthesis(L5 slippage).AS is the fusing of your spine I don't think so but there are tests to tell if you have markers that would point to it.They say it's hereditary.Be strong unfortunately I've been on those forums for AS and some of them go years without proper dx.Hopefully your dx won't be that bad.
                                GOOD LUCK