Hello, I'm new here

[Guest guest]

I am so thankful that I have found this group. I couldn't find one

for so long. I have 2 children with juvenile arthritis.

My son is 12 and was diagnosed September of '07. He has rheumatoid

factor positive polyarticular. He was hospitalized with severe leg

pain and everything else was ruled out. We ended up with an adult

rheumatologist who didn't treat very aggressively.

My daughter is 10 and was diagnosed in July of this year. The doc.

seems to think she is more spondylarthropy type. Her sed. rate is

elevated, but no other positives so far. She was hospitalized with

ankle pain. The adult rheum. wouldn't see her soon after the

hospitalization and wasn't real interested in helping with the pain,

so I took her to a city one hour away with a pediatric rheum. This

made all of the difference. She is already better than my son and

has only been diagnosed a few months.

Both children are on Enbrel. My daughter takes Methotrexate, but my

son didn't tolerate it. Both go to physical therapy. Are there any

more siblings out there with arthritis?

My name is Audra. Hopeinhonduras is from a mission trip I took to an

orphanage named Hope House in Honduras. I live in South Alabama. We

homeschool. It started out as an educational decision, but it is

great now that we are at the doctor/pharmacy/PT or something all of

the time. Sometimes I think we carschool. I am an RN, but I only

work 1 shift a week. Helps with the copays!

That is all that I can think of that is interesting. I am sure that

after I read a while I'll jump in. I have many questions, but I have

already typed long enough.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Audra