Personal Narrative: My Arthritis Story

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Hi I’m Mallorie, I’m 31 years old and this is My Arthritis Story. In the winter of 1995 at the age of 10 I came down with one of the many cases of strep throat. I started getting fevers and complaining of joint pain on a regular basis.
In the summer of 1995 I woke up in the middle of the night screaming in pain and holding my knee. My mom discovered a large lump bulging out the side of my right knee. The next morning my parents took me to the E.R. where they told us it was "growing pains" and thus sent us on our way with 200 mg of ibuprofen. That summer I was excited to join my first softball team. I soon found out I had to sit out on a lot of games because I was hurting. As a result my parents presumed I was making it up and thought I didn't want to play softball anymore. …show more content…

The surgeon decided to remove the lump and have it biopsied. The lump turned out to be a benign tumor. At a follow -up visit with the orthopedic surgeon, the doctor asked me to make a closed fist with my hands. At that moment, my parents and I discovered I wasn't able to bend or move my fingers and we were told it could be arthritis. I was referred to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for testing. In August 1995, after 4 days of being poked and prodded at, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis with overlapping SLE (lupus). The doctors there put me on Plaquenil and referred me to Dr. Kiem a pediatric rheumatologist in Green Bay, WI. After my diagnosis at Mayo Clinic, my disease progression started to go down-hill very quickly. My dad would have to carry me on his back up and down the stairs and my mom would have to help me to the toilet in the middle of the night in the morning. My feet and ankles were too painful to put any weight on and I ached and had chills all over my

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