Welcome!

This blog is to show people what it's really like to live with Rheumatoid Arthritis at 18. When I was diagnosed, I searched the web and found very few accounts showing the difficulties of dealing with this disease at such a young age. On top of this, there were NONE that described the college experience living with RA, which has inpired me to start this! I hope my account can provide hope and support to RA fighters of all ages, and especially to those who have just been diagnosed!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Arthritis Survey

If you could please participate in this survey that would be amazing!!

They are developing a product to assist people with joint problems, and would really appreciate it if any of you could give your input.

http://www.surveybuilder.com/s/JqbPwEErgAA


Campus Health Part II

I just realized that I forgot to mention this part of my campus health experience. After running out of my Enbrel samples, we had to figure out a way to get them here. Considering they had to be refrigerated, it was quite a challenge. They were shipped to my home address in Phoenix due to my parents being the health insurance owners. For the first 2 months, my dad actually had to drive up and bring me the shots. This was not only an inconvenience to him, but to me as well, seeing that I was working often. We shortly decided that this needed to change, and NAU's campus health really did help us in this process. My mom called the office, and they actually figured out a way to have the medication shipped to them. They had to create a whole new process to do so, for they had never had a situation like this before. It was quite funny actually, I went in to pick up the medication, and they had me go into a room like a regular visit. The doctors there were all pretty curious to see what the injections look like, and to actually see me. When I went into the room, there were 2 nurses in there having me fill out the receiving paperwork, and about 3 doctors who somehow had found excuses to need to be in that room. They all had no reason to be there, but like I said, it was humorous to see them standing around, or walking in to just watch. Anyways, after this initial visit, I only have to go back once a month to pick up the medication. They always call me to tell me when the expected arrival date is, and when to come and get it. I just walk in, we unpack the box to make sure it is all there, I sign the release form, and all is well. I really have had a good experience having campus health work with me, and I am really grateful for it. They often send me emails and talk to me to ask how i'm doing, and it really does help to just explain your situation to them, for they can really do something about it.

Gladiator Run

As I mentioned before, I decided to run a 5k race while I still can. It was the Phoenix Gladiator Rock'N Run autism fundraiser and I was actually pretty nervous to see how my joints would react.

The race included a mountain run, and 17 obstacles including a mud craw, fire put jump, and rope wall that we had to climb. It was a strain to be able to do some of the events, but overall not bad! I was surprised to see how well my body handled it, and had very little swelling and pain the next day. It has really encouraged me to start being more active, and I'm hopefully going to be signing up for a half marathon soon.

Here are some pictures from the race. We were team "Tutu's and Tata's".