Stories

My name is Maryse Hendi and I live in Calgary, AB. In 2012, at age 10, I was diagnosed with lupus. Lupus is a disease in which the immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks healthy tissue, joints, and organs in the body. On May 1st, I celebrated a milestone in…

Meet Sheila and Jim! They’ve shared their family’s journey with the rare rheumatic disease, CRMO, below. Sheila and Jim live in Qualicum Beach on beautiful Vancouver Island. They have three sons, two of which live with Chronic Recurrent Multifocal Osteomyelitis (CRMO). Nolan was diagnosed with CRMO at the age of…

Addie, Prince George, BC14 years old, Psoriatic JIA I used to hike and play school sports like basketball and volleyball. Now, I’m not able to because my arthritis hurts too much in my elbow, ankles and knees. This last year I started on the volleyball team, but had to stop…

Scarlett’s journey started at about 16 months old. We noticed that in the mornings, she would just sit for up to two hours. Did not want to stand or walk – she almost seemed like she had to ‘warm up’ first. After about a week of no improvement, I took…

A year and a half ago our daughter was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. Her pain and psoriasis started about a year before that but between misdiagnosis and chalking things up to growing pains, we had no idea JIA was even a thing. It all came to a head after a…

I was diagnosed with JIA 25 years ago. Twenty-five years ago I was 13 years old and newly diagnosed with JIA or as it was known in my day, JRA (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis).  When I was a teen I found a lot of peer support through a Juvenile Arthritis Physiotherapy…

I don’t know if there can be a ‘typical’ journey for a young child who receives a Juvenile Arthritis diagnosis. But this is Linden’s story so far. When Linden got sick at 18 months old, we thought it was just a cold. But then came an unusual rash and his…

Hello, my name is Grace Parker Palidwor. I was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis when I was 18 months old. In the first few years of my diagnosis, I don’t remember much except that I believed that every child was exactly like me. I believed that all my friends woke…

Caden was diagnosed with JIA when she was just 3 years old. When we first noticed her limping, we thought she may have hurt her knee skiing as we had just taken her for her first lessons. Then one morning I saw her sneaking down the stairs from her bedroom,…

Hello,  My name is Emma Linsley, and I am from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When I was 15 years old, I was diagnosed with JIA. Along with needing to learn to manage the physical ailments of the disease, this diagnosis brought with it a complex set of other challenges that my support…

Written by young adult JIA patient, Julie Beausoleil, this blog post was originally published by www.takeapaincheck.ca on June 29th, 2021. Take A Pain Check is a juvenile arthritis focussed podcast hosted by 18 year old Natasha Trehan, that provides a recognizable platform for youth and young adults to share their experience with…

The Beginning As a toddler learning to walk, Audrey caught on pretty fast. By her 1st birthday she was already zooming around with impressive coordination and balance. When we noticed that she was limping on-and-off at 18 months of age, we knew something was up. Her right ankle was swollen so…