A young girl with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis records her daily struggles with the disease.
wednesday, March 19~
Nicole Michelle Aldape is my name, and I am ten years old; but today I feel like a hundred. Maybe TWO hundred!
I am having a bad day. My JRA is acting up again; and I am stuck in bed with a flare (active period of my disease). It hurts to write; my fingers are giving me fits as I try to type this on my computer. (I have a laptop; that way, I can type in bed.) I feel like shit, if you want to know the honest truth. My head is killing me, my joints are swollen and inflamed, and I have already managed to throw up twice today (once this morning, and about an hour ago). My tummy hurts, too.
I have had arthritis since I was a baby of six weeks; it runs in my family, this arthritis; and besides me, my cousin, Tyler, and my grandma also have rheumatoid arthritis. Both have it about as bad as me; but it is hard to remember that when you're the one who is in pain! :( I have had to go in and out of the hospital because of "flares", and I can't walk without crutches. (I use a wheelchair for longer trips. It is a lot easier for me to get around that way, especially if I go to school or go anywhere, really.)
I have to take many pills to help with the inflammation and pain; and I often feel cruddy. Or I am so tired because, more likely than not, the darn pain wakes me up in the middle of the night!
My best friend, Ronee' Reaux, has JRA, too; I met her at arthritis camp several years ago; and we've practically been like sisters ever since. She knows my moods, and I know hers, and we're cool with each other. But she and I are as different as night and day: I am short and fat; she is short and thin. I have fair hair, blue eyes, and pale skin; she is dark-haired, dark-eyed, and dark-skinned. And she has a big family while I am an only child. Plus she likes country and Cajun music while I like rock music. "KISS" is my favorite rock band.
But what makes us the same is the fact that we both have systemic-onset JRA. She has flares, too, just like I do, and she, too, uses crutches and a wheelchair at times; but she gets around a lot better than I do (and I sometimes get jealous of her!).
I will have to write more later; I am starting to get that funny feeling in my tummy again, like I have to throw up. I better go before I barf all over this laptop! 'Bye!
Sorry to hearr of a little girl suffering so badly you make these characters so real tha it feels like you can reach out and touch them!
God Bless
~Michelle~
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