Starting the New Year with JRA.

Most recently was New Years Eve which as we know turns into New Years Day. Now I was sitting art my cousins house in Virginia and playing Just Dance 2015 and having some fun when we realized that it was about 10:30 at night. The two youngest went to bed as we expected them two but me and my other cousin stayed up to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Me and my younger cousin starting making as we called them "kiddie drinks" with tonic water and juice. It was a lot of fun and I wasn't having much pain until around 11 at night. So I took a Naproxen. As I was sitting there talking with the about 5 people in the house still awake and talking Naproxen I realized that I wasn't going to miss 2014 at all. Everybody was talking about how much they were going to miss 2014 and all of the good things that had happened to them that year, and I was just sitting there like...ok..... I have had a pretty bad year and honestly I would be perfectly fine if I could just erase the year 2014 from my life completely. My dad asked e what I meant and then I realized that pretty much everybody had forgotten what had happened to me this past year. I was diagnosed with an ankle disease and had to get a surgery, broke my back and screwed up my hips in a car accident, and then was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Not one of best years. Except for the fact that I'm really attractive. LOL JK. But anyways when the ball dropped I was relieved cause I realized that I was done with that terrible and that I got a new start and I was able to restart and move forward. Don't get me wrong I am totally looking forward to 2015 and there were some good memories in 2014 but I plan to make 2015 incredible.

Accepting that You have JRA

First of All if you haven't read my about me section I suggest you read that so you know a little about me. Now if you have read my section you no that I am 14 years old and that I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in the summer of 2014. This summer.
I think one of the hardest things to do when you first get diagnosed or even really when you are dealing with a disease such as rheumatoid arthritis is the fact that you have to keep your head up in order to make your self feel better. You might ask how could having a good thought of mind make one feel better overall when dealing with a disease like this? Well, stress. One of the things that provokes this disease, not causes, but provokes this disease is the amount of stress that is going on in your life, and OI can voucher that when I started going to school after the summer my stress levels, and my pain levels sky rocketed. Now you might be questioning how this has to tie into dealing with and accepting the fact that you have RA. Here's is the answer and it is a lot simpler said than done. The sooner you are able to accept the fact that you have RA and the sooner you start reducing your stress and managing your pain, the less pain you will be in. And overall you will be more healthy.
Getting to the point that is accepting the fact that you have RA is a lot easier said then done. Trust me I have been down this road before, and in fact I still am going down this road, I still am finding ways to manage my pain and just accept what happened to me and find a way to deal with it. I think the first thing to remember is the fact that you are not alone. (especially you adults) All over the world there are people that are effected by this disease, and all over the world there are people who are going through what you are going through and trust me they can provide you with some support. So therefor the first thing I would suggest you do is go and join a support group whether it be a in person group or what I have even done is join support groups online and you re able to see just how similar people are too you and it does really help.
The second thing I think that I can say o you is find a psychiatrist to talk to.  Now I know what you are probably thinking, I don't need help I'm fine, that what I though and then I realized that I wasn't. There is a lot of grieving that takes place with this disease I wouldn't be surprised if you had to give up some of your activities that you used to loved to do. I did, like running. So talking about all of this and what is happening can really make you feel better.
Also talk to other about this and what is going on with their RA. That's why I ask you how old are you? When were you diagnosed? and What tips do you have?
 

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Holiday's everybody! I hope you all have a nice time with your family, and friends and are able to enjoy a flare and pain free holiday season!!! Remember to Follow!!!! Again Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sorry

Sorry I haven't been posting lately there was some confusion with a lawyer, involving personal issues. I will e starting to post daily.

400 Page Views!!

I'm so excited that I've made it this far, and while I wish for this blog to continue to grow and eventually turn into something bigger I am excited that I've been able to help and reach out to so many people thus far!!!

Taking Control of my Arthritis

Today was an especially rough day on me. My family wanted to go out and go walk around at this thing where I live called Dickens Christmas. Its where people dress up like the people from Dickens time and walk around and talk all old and stuff... you get the point. Well anyways what was supposed to be a hour long walk around later turned into 5 hours of walking around and standing... It was terrible, and my pain killers were at home.

When I got home I was just totally beat, I had absolutely no energy left in my system, so I went straight to be and laid down with the heated blanket on, and with my pain killers. Well finally I woke up and what did I realize... it was injection day... fun... so I had my dad take the shot out of the fridge to sit out because at this point I was still too sore and stiff to even, walk. Finally I had to take my shot after a half an hour of it sitting out, and of course I got the  jitters and was having trouble just taking it. Now when I was doing this and freaking out I realized that when I first got diagnosed with my Juvenile Arthritis, I went on vacation the next week and I had bought a sailors bracelet, and I made a vow that I wouldn't take it off until every thing was over, and as I sat there I realized that, that bracelet was a way for me to tell myself that there was nothing I could do about this and that I had to just sit there and wait it out. But that was wrong, I could do something about it, stop letting it take control of me and take control of it. So tonight not only did that give me the courage to take my shot, but I cut off my bracelet and threw it out because I realized this is over cause I AM TAKING CONTROL OF MY ARTHRITIS!

Juvenile Arthritis Vlog?

So recently I've been searching on YouTube for a vlog or a channel of somebody that keeps an up to date video blog about their life with Juvenile Arthritis and some other tips. I think what I was looking for something similar to the vlog that was of Talia Joy, and I realized that there wasn't any vlogs like this and that they were either one vlog, or they simply weren't there. So I was wondering what you guys would think of me starting a video blog???? Please comment with your replies!!!

Sorry I havent Posted in a couple days

Sorry, I've been busy with Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Comment things you guys would like for me to talk about and Ill address it. Also what would you guys think about me starting a vlog?

Keeping your head up while dealing with Auto-immune arthritis

I think one of the hardest thing to do while you are living with you arthritis heck and auto-immune disease or any type of other disease is trying to keep your head up.  When you are living with a disease I think the hardest thing is to keep on dealing with everything that is going on. Now when this immediately happens there will be the people all around you that care and are worried about you, but I'm sorry to say this but the truth is that when it comes down to it eventually people stop caring and this becomes your problem and you need to find the inner strength to be able to keep on moving on to keep your head up. I've

put some quotes below to try to lift your spirits enjoy!

Jingle Bell Run/Walk this morning!!!!!

My local jingle bell run/walk is this morning and I am so excited!!! I will be putting out another post today following the run/walk to tell you guys how it was! Are any of you guys doing your local jingle bell run/walk? If so how much have you raised!!!!?

Arthritis Foundation and the Jingle Bell Run

Now in case you guys don't know about the arthritis foundation go check them out, google them, they have really been able to provide me with answers toady of my questions and help me get through some things. What I'm here to talk about though is what I have been doing recently which is organizing a school team for my local Jingle Bell Run!!! The run/walk is tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward too it so much. I really have put a lot of work into trying to make this into a good thing and I'm really accided to see how it turns out tomorrow! I guess I will post again tomorrow and tell you about how it went! 

Physical Therpay and Arthritis

See before I got diagnosed with my arthritis I was going to Physical Therapy to treat my back which was fractured during a car accident that I was in with my mom in April of this year, but often when people are diagnosed with arthritis they are prescribed physical therapy. Well today I had a problem I had to visit somebody else at the office I go to because my Physical Therapist is on vacation, and it was terrible they didn't get me enough exercises they didn't know what to do and quite frequently they didn't really care. I guess what I am trying to say is find a physical therapist you like and stick with them because they learn how you act and can tell when you are in pain, plus there is nothing stronger than a pond between a physical therapist and a injured one... lol.

1st Christmas with Arthritis!

I was deciding that I was going to make my Christmas list tonight to give everybody an idea of what I wanted for Christmas so that they might have time to go out before hand and buy Christmas gifts, you know like on Black Friday. Well I sat down, and I realized how much I just anted things that would help me, I didn't want toys like I did when I was 8, as I am know 14 years old, but it wasn't that that got me tripped up cause when it came down to it I have just been wanting really nice clothes, and a couple of other things like electronics or movie passes not toys. What really got me going was the I realized that almost everything that I had on my Christmas list were things that in one way or another would help me feel less pain, or help me get my homework done quicker to minimize the pain I was feeling.

 I mean it was really consistent like I realized that I wanted to heat tech clothes or whatever they are called because when it comes down to it where I live up in New York it is cold 8 months out of the year and so far my joints have been hurting like you wouldn't believe. Is this the same for everybody? but anyways I figured those would help me stay warm.

Since we are talking about trying to stay warm in the cold weather to make ourselves feel less pain I also realized that I wanted one of those heated electric blankets for my bed again to help me stay warm. Now my parents have on of these on their beds, and I have to tell you IT IS AMAZING!!!!! I am constantly in their bed when they aren't sleeping with the heat on. In fact I am in their bed right now typing this, so I figured that as a must and put in on my list. I really hope that I get one of those because they honestly help me feel so much better if I were you I would ask for one for Christmas or get one for somebody else for Christmas, it doesn't even matter if they have arthritis really everybody will love one of these heated electric blankets I can promise you that.

Now the next two things that I realized I wanted wouldn't make me feel better directly, but they would make me feel better in the long run. The first think I wanted was a Microsoft Surface. Now I know you are probably wondering how this could make me feel better in the long run. Well right now the battery on our laptop is broken so it always has to be plugged in to work and I have to sit at this desk on a hard chair to use it so it makes me sore, so having this would allow me to move and type somewhere else so that I don't have to sit at that desk and get sore. Also this has feature that allow me to have a word document and Google open and the same time and type and read the document at the same time so I could lessen the amount of time that I spent working on research papers.

The last thing that I want for Christmas besides so nice new cloths and other silly little things is a software like Dragon so that I can do a speech to text process in order to type up my papers faster in again order to lessen the amount of time that I spend on assignment resulting in me being less sore.

Now I am not complaining about what I want for Christmas I just am trying to say how I find it funny how something that up until 3 months ago I didn't even know about is know such a big part of my day to day life!

Slight Change In Blog Topic to my Story with JRA as an daily journal!

So I have decided that I am going to start using my blog as a space to talk about my day to day life with arthritis and what I do, if I had a flare up that day, doctors appointments, etc. I will still be answering any questions that anybody might have about Juvenile Arthritis or Arthritis in general whether it be a person who was just diagnosed or a person who has had JA I will still be here to answer questions.

I want to hear your feed back and questions about Juvenile Arthritis!!!!

I want you guys who are reading my blog to realize that I want to hear what your going through and any questions or tips you have about Juvenile Arthritis and dealing with it, actually any questions you have about anything!! I will try to answer them if I get questions in a post later tonight or tomorrow! Feel free to ask me anything!!!

Raising Money For Arthritis (Jingle Bell Run/Walk)

I know right now there isn't a cute for arthritis and that might make it seem like there is no where for you to go and that there is nothing you can do for your arthritis, but you can do something, you can devote time and energy into raising money to donate to research into a cure for arthritis through the Arthritis Foundation.

One of the things that I think can help the most when your diagnosed with a disease as traumatic as arthritis is, is trying to turn something that may seem like a negative and a curse an turning it into a positive and a blessing! The way the I have been able to do this is finding ways to help others for example starting this blog was a way for my to trying to find a release and it turned into something that is a part of me. Also making a school team for your local Jingle Bell Run/Walk. This had really helped me in being able to accept what has happened I really suggest you try setting out to do something for the greater good! 

Donate to me to supper me in my local Jingle Bell Run/Walk at http://www.jbrsyracuse.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/mobileDonorPledge.asp?ievent=1112082&lis=0&kntae1112082=E2911AA83DE74201BF3D1FCB3A454208&supId=415145188&team=0&scWidth=320&extSiteType=

When Will The Next Post Come Out?

Just so everybody knows I will be typing and releasing a new post every night or at east every other night at approximately 6:00 P.M.

Hope your felling good!

Dealing with your Diagnosis of Juvenile Arthritis

Through out our lives we lose things that are close to us, getting diagnosed with any type of Juvenile Arthritis can have the exact same effects on the people that are diagnosed with it, those feeling sof grief and sadness are hard to ditch and leave behind but with some tips you can over come to emotions associated with JA. I think the thing to keep most in mind is how blessed you are that you disease is not terminal and to try to keep your head up and think on the positive side. Trust me I know that it is hard I've suffered with this and depression myself, and I'm sorry that I cant provide more help all I can tell you is that professional help to talk about your feelings and trying to keep your head up has really helped me and maybe it will help you too! Best of luck, Hang in there!

Comments with any questions.

Going to School with Juvenile Arthritis

           Juvenile Arthritis is very rough any anybody that has whiter it be Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) or if it is Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), going to school if often very tiring and hard to get through the  day when your dealing with this disease, but thankfully I have found some things that have been able to help me get through the school day and I'm excited to share them with you!
           For me when I first started going to school after getting my diagnosis of my arthritis I found that I often had a very hard time being comfortable in school and then completing my homework when I got home because I was so sore and tired. Now and first I didn't know what to do so I just kept my suffering to myself because I didn't want to be a pain, but eventually my mother noticed and she helped me set up a time where I could go to the nurse and just lay down for a couple of minutes whether it was 5 or 20 was up to me, but it is always available for me to go there. I highly recommend this it has helped me so much and it is crazy to believe what just ten minutes of rest can do!
   
          I think the thing that I found the most difficult next was the fact that since I was sore and I was so miserable before I started taking breaks I was often angry and grumpy at everybody. I realized that people stopped wanting to be around me, now I don't know if this is a problem for everybody but all I can suggest is to embrace the people around you and surround yourself with the people that you want to be around and the people that will support you and if you do that you will truly be happy.

Comment any questions! I will answer them in my next post!

Sorry... I know I havent been posting

Sorry I know I haven't been posting in a long time... I've been busy with school and with all of my recent doctors appointments but I am going to start posting everyday!