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Growing up with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Crystal to help reach goal of $104,580

Newington: The Greater Hartford Walk to Cure Arthritis is being held on Sunday, May 4, 2014 at the University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford from 9am to 12pm. Walk to Cure Arthritis is the Arthritis Foundation’s largest annual fundraising event, with local events hosted by approximately 115 cities nationwide. Funds raised through the event support Arthritis Foundation programs, research, and advocacy initiatives to help people live better today while finding a cure for the number one cause of disability in the United States tomorrow.

 

Crystal from Newington, CT has stepped forward to help reach the goal of $104,580.

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Crystal’s story

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I was 12 years old when I was diagnosed with JRA. It was a very hard time for me, because we didn’t know much about Arthritis at that time. As a child I thought Arthritis was something only old people got. I would often ask my Mother when would I be able to run again and play outside, ride my bike, and do all the things I use to love to do? My life was never the same at school; the kids were mean to me. At first I had a lot of friends then everything changed. It felt like I had the plague or something. I was going to the doctors once a week getting gold shots and other medicine. My mother took me out of school for a while because it was hard to be in pain from the JRA and deal with the mean kids at school. I had a tutor for while, I felt like I was being punished at that time. My doctor put me into Newington Children’s Hospital to run more tests on me. I met a girl for the 1st time who also had JRA, she was in a wheelchair. She couldn’t walk at all; her legs were frozen like she couldn’t straighten them out.  I realize that even though all that I went through there, there is someone who has it worse than you do. At that point I didn’t feel sorry for myself any more. I grew up pretty fast, I really didn’t have a teenage life, I missed a lot in high school. When I graduated High School I went to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass. to have my 1st knee replacement and hip replacement two weeks apart. I was there for a month at a time, having both sides done. In Boston I met more kids from around the world who also had JRA that came there to have surgery too. I was 18 years old at this time, I felt like I had been through so much in my life. My mother got in touch with the Arthritis Foundation in 1984; they got me a sanitary bike to do my rehab on. In the 1990’s I had to have my left knee redone and my right hip because they had got infected once or twice. By the time I was 25 years old I was working a full time job, I had my driver’s license and my own apartment. My doctor at the time told me I would never have kids, so when I got pregnant I was very happy and in shock. My daughter Aaliyah Nicole was born September 8th 1997.  A couple of years later I got married to my daughters father Michael in 2001.  I went on with my life; I had my ups and downs with RA flare ups, here and there. You can have a life even if you have RA, going through replacements and having flare ups, might be part of Arthritis. One day with the help of the Arthritis Walk, we will find a cure for this disease.

 

We need your support to find a cure and remove the burden of this crippling disease.

 

To learn more and register for the Greater Hartford Walk to Cure Arthritis, visit http://walktocurearthritishartfordct.kintera.org/ or contact Luellen Perkins at 860-563-1177 or Lperkins@arthritis.org. To learn more about the fight to cure arthritis, visit www.arthritiswalk.org

 

About the Arthritis Foundation

Striking one in every five adults and 300,000 children, arthritis is the nation’s leading cause of disability. The Arthritis Foundation (www.arthritis.org) is committed to raising awareness and reducing the impact of this serious, painful and unacceptable disease, which can severely damage joints and rob people of living life to its fullest. The Foundation funds life-changing research that has restored mobility in patients for more than six decades; fights for health care policies that improve the lives of the millions who live with arthritis; and partners with families to provide empowering programs and information.

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