AF Fun Day

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone:

Just wanted to share our day today. We (Mike, Hannah & I) attended our first AF

Fun Day. It was held at a local hotel that also has a water park. They charged

us $10 per person, which included lunch, guest speakers and time in the water

park. We arrived in time for lunch. We then dropped Hannah off in the kids

activity room, where she had a blast! For the first time ever she is thinking

of going to camp, away from us for six days!!! Never has she considered this

before. While she was in her activity room, the parents were next door where

they had a couple of speakers. The first one talked about the advocacy side of

things and the things going in Washington. The second was a couple who have a

daughter with systemic JRA and are both teachers (one is a gym teacher and the

other a special ed teacher). The focus of their talk was 504's and IEPs.

We then had almost an hour to network and just talk. This was awesome. We were

at a table with the local AF president, and she was sympathetic to our

experience at our local hospital and said this is not the first time she's heard

this. We also talked with a lady who has 2 kids with JRA and she was

fascinating to listen to. She also has been to several conferences and was

thrilled to hear we are going after hearing Hannah's story. She recommended

that maybe we should try Cincinnati's Children's. Finally, we met a family just

like ours. They have a 13 year old son and an 11 year old daughter. We were

able to introduce the girls and they spent 2 hours in the water park together.

They have so much in common it was almost scary...LOL. They only live a couple

of hours from us and are hoping we can get them together this summer. This girl

is much like Hannah in her symptoms and joints, but received her diagnosis

quickly.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, but what a great experience. If conference is anything

like this, I'm ready to go now!

Beth & Hannah, 11, unspecified arthritis w/hypermobility; asthma; gerd;

migraines

Sending prayers & happy thoughts,

Beth :-)