The picture above is a picture of me when I was a baby. I look like normal baby, and for the first two years of my life, I was. I was the first child my parents had so when I was a baby, I was always passed around between family members. I didn't mind much and it's just what happens when you're a baby. I didn't have any problems for my first two years of life, but once I turned two that's when problems started happening.
My parents started noticing that I would cry whenever my Opa would hold me or if my cousin would touch me. Random things would make me start crying and no one knew why. One morning, I couldn't walk at all and one time during church, I wouldn't put my feet on the pews to stand up. I was called a crybaby multiple times and my parents weren't happy about it. No one likes hearing mean things about their child, especially their first child.
My parents decided it was time to figure out what was wrong with me so I could get the help I needed.I was taken to multiple different doctors and no one could figure out what was wrong with me. I had a bone scan in April of 1999 to see if maybe it was my bones. My parents had to sign a waiver saying it was okay that they put their first born child to sleep for this scan and that they wouldn't sue if I never woke up. My dad tells me about how I fell asleep in his arms and it was one of the scariest moments of his life. Luckily, I did wake up and the doctors thought that they saw a fracture in my leg. The doctors decided to put my leg in a cast to see if that helped.
The cast was not the solution to the problem because I was still in a lot of pain in other areas of my body. I would start my mornings in a lot of pain but be fine the rest of the day. When I started preschool, my mom would get a call from my teacher because I would be crying about my neck hurting or if someone touched me, I would start crying instantly. At this point, my mom was pregnant with my little sister so the doctors thought maybe I was faking all of this to get attention since there was a new baby on the way.
In August of 2000, a friend of my dad, Dr. Schuckmann, called my dad one day and asked how I was doing. He was the one who put the idea that it might be arthritis. Dr. Schuckmann called my doctor and my doctor said that he didn't believe that it was arthritis, but my mom wanted to rule it out. We made an appointment at Children's Hospital and met up with Dr. Paul Rosen. Dr. Rosen said that it might be arthritis but we would have to do a blood test to verify it. Dr. Robert Colbert saw me as well, agreed with Dr. Rosen and the blood work came back positive for arthritis. I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and more specifically, polyarticular arthritis. This meant that my arthritis on the right side of my body was the exact same as the left side of my body.
My parents were so relieved that I finally had a diagnosis and that we had doctors that could get me started on medicine. I was first put on both naprosyn and methotrexate to help stop the pain. Naprosyn made my stomach hurt and gave me mouth sores so I was only on that for about three months. My parents started doing daily stretches with me and my mom says that as long as I was in front of the TV, I would let them do what they needed to do.
While methotrexate helped the pain of my arthritis, it had a possibility of severely affect my liver. Knowing this, my doctors told my parents that I would have to get my blood drawn every six weeks. It was terrifying being four years old and having to have your blood drawn. I fought my parents and the doctors every single time. Whenever I think about it, my arm feels like the needle is in it. It took me until I was about 11-12 years old to finally stop freaking out when it was time to get my blood drawn. However, if you told me today that I would have to get my blood drawn, I would immediately break down crying.
I'm extremely lucky that the methotrexate worked well for me, had amazing doctors that helped me and the best parents I could ask for to help me through the bad days. I'm even luckier that all of the pain I felt, I don't remember it at all because I was so young. Through all of the doctors visit's, pain, tears and blood withdrawals, I am so blessed that when I was 14 years old, my arthritis was diagnosed as in remission. I didn't have to take anymore medicine and I didn't have to go to my doctor anymore. I can remember that day like it was yesterday and it will always be one of the best days of my life. This year is going to be my 6th year of being remission and I couldn't be happier.
I have to say thank you to my parents. I can't even imagine how scared you two were not knowing what was wrong with me. I thank my lucky stars everyday that you guys were so helpful and didn't just assume that I was crying for attention. Thank you for holding me down every time I had to get my blood drawn because I know it was a hard fight to get me to stop freaking out. Thank you for always understanding me when other people didn't and helping me have a normal childhood while dealing with arthritis. You two are my rock and I'm so lucky to have amazing parents like you two.
