My Fundraising Goal:
$250.00 |
Money Raised to Date:
$3,270.00 |
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If you are unable to donate online, please print out a donation form. |
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Show Us Your Moves! | | My family and I will be virtual walkers this year, we will do our walk from the beach in Florida :) Thanks to all who will walk for us in Boston!
| | This year marks the 3rd in which my family and I will participate in the Boston Arthritis Walk to help raise awareness and to support the foundation for all they have done and continue to do to help people like my son who have to live the day-to-day life of this awful disease. My son Shawn who is the most courageous, strongest and bravest little man has been living with arthritis since he was diagnosed at 22 months old. To say the least it has been the biggest struggle for him and the family in controlling and managing the disease. People who live with this disease have to deal with so much, some of the things to mention are monthly appointments to their Rheumatologist, constant lab work, MRI's, X-Rays, Physical Therapy and daily forms of medication to alleviate the pain they live with. My son has to have two injections, once a week, he calls it his ‘yellow’ medicine and ‘white’ medicine, when it comes time for his ‘yellow’ medicine he handles it like a trooper, he says ‘ok mom, you can give me my medicine now’, when it comes time for his ‘white’ medicine, a completely different scenario, although we use the emlar cream to ease the pain of the initial poke, it does not help with the burning sensation as the medicine is injected in his arm, every week he tells me I don’t want my ‘white’ medicine, please give me the ‘yellow’ instead, and every week I have to explain to him that he has arthritis, and this medicine helps to make his ankles and knees feel the best they can, and as he is held on the lap of his dad or gramma, he sits there waiting for the injection and looks me in the face and says ‘momma, I am not going to cry, I am going to be tough’, breaking my heart every time, and when it is all over he gets his kisses and hugs and continues his day like it never happened, for an adult it may be a bit easier to manage, but no child should have to go through what my son does on a regular basis, he knows nothing more than the life he has lived since he turned 22 months old, he may think what he has to do is 'normal', but I know it isn't, I know he should be able to live like all the other healthy kids he associates with, but we do the best we can to take care of him, control his disease and make the best decisions we can for him and support him the best that we can, what we can hope for some day is a cure, this walk gives my family and I hope, this is our one time to participate and make a difference to all who live this life and to hope and pray that some day a cure is found, that some day when a child goes to the hospital and gets diagnosed with JRA they can tell his or her parents "we have a cure". Thank you for visiting my web page and reading our story and thank you all for your support, it means more to us than words can ever say. |
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