"I was known as the 'girl who gets sick easily' within my family. This really impacted my mental health and acceptance for JIA for years." Did you know? Living with Juvenile Arthritis (JA)and other childhood rheumatic diseases like Lupus and JDM can increase your child's risk of depression [...]
I am the proud mother to a vibrant 3.5-year-old, Émilie, who was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) shortly before her second birthday. We were fortunate as a family to receive a diagnosis in a relatively rapid timeframe thanks to knowledge about navigating the health care system (I work as a nurse) and a [...]
Parenting is joyful, frustrating, rewarding and exhausting. Parenting a child with a chronic disease gives you a double dose of it all; you face challenges most parents never dream of. You juggle doctors, therapists, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmacies and the list goes on. Then there are the emotional and behavioural issues you deal with. [...]
“Every furrow of her brow makes me want to stop” If you have ever struggled to give your child an injection or to manage your child’s - or your own - emotions about their treatments, you are not alone! In the lead up to our Methotrexate session, we talked with Yvonne Brandelli, PhD Student, [...]
The Virtual Youth Panel event is now available for viewing on Youtube and IGTV. You'll find timestamps of the video on Youtube to direct you to the questions/answers you'll want to hear the most. This is an excellent resource to share with relatives, friends, sports coaches and teachers to help them understand life with [...]
Alison Legge is a member of the Cassie + Friends Youth Leader Committee. She spoke at Cassie + Friends Family Day 2016 as a youth champion, speaking about the impact chronic disease has had on her mental health. A lot has happened since then, and Alison has learned she is not alone and there [...]
At Family Day 2016, Cassie and Friends volunteer Alison Legge gave a powerful speech about Juvenile Arthritis and the effect it has on mental health. This February, Alison underwent bilateral TMJ replacement surgery to ease the pain in her jaw, and is currently having a speedy recovery. She is now the chair of Cassie and Friends’ [...]
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