So earlier this year, we were told that my oldest- Abbigale (A) had Juvenile arthritis after almost a year of wondering what a rash was from ... swelling that went un explained and trying numerous anti inflammatories... The doctor told us in January the official diagnosis, after an MRI numerous x-rays that out sweet beautiful Abbie had JIA.
JIA= Juvenile Idopathic Arthritis I was clueless. The Arthritis Foundation page at the time seemed so unfriendly so I went to my "social network" and started looking up JA... Anything I could hunt down. I remember writing on the page how lonely it felt. It was like I was in this diagnosis process. More than once I have stated my anger at the fact that I have a daughter who is suffering with "an old person disease.... More than once I have thought it was unfair that she has to have weekly injections... TONS of daily meds, mouth sores, sore joints, weird rashes... This disease is horrible, its autoimmune, and NOT CURABLE... You can go into remission but the joint damage that occurs IS PERMANENT!!!
Children with JA are treated with Chemotherapy drugs. As a parent you have to choose... to treat, or not to treat. It is not an easy decision. The meds sometimes are just as bad as the disease... I chose and still choose to medicate. Long term benefit wins hands down to any other treatment.
This is where our journey begins... from here on out... this is it raw and real...
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