October 2023

Lily’s Journey to Diagnosis, Methotrexate, and Finding A Community of Support

By |October 19th, 2023|Injection, JIA, Medication, methotrexate, newly diagnosed, School, School Toolkit, TMJ, Uncategorized|

Meet Lily. One morning, at the young age of 2, our daughter Lily woke up limping and her left knee looked slightly swollen. She didn't seem to show that she was in pain, but was refraining from putting weight on her left leg. We had no idea what happened and didn't recall any [...]

OPT-JIA Premedication Trial

By |October 17th, 2023|blog, Current Research, Future Research, Injection, JIA, Medication, Research|

When I first heard of the medication Ondansetron, I couldn’t help but think about how its name sounded like a character from the Transformers movies. While this medication doesn’t fight space aliens or have a special effects budget, it does hold the capacity to TRANSFORM lives. How might you ask?Methotrexate is a [...]

April 2019

UCAN Ride4Kids (Day 1 to 3) – Updates from the Road from Dr. Jaime Guzman

By |April 29th, 2019|Advocacy, Current Events, Research, UCAN Ride4Kids|

Day 1 Under clear skies and magnificent views of the Lake Louise Glacier an intrepid group of riders representing Canada, Germany, Italy, Mexico and The Netherlands started the 2019 UCAN Ride4Kids. Attendants to the Childhood Arthritis and Beyond Conference enthusiastically bid farewell to the riders and after an inspiring speech by David Porte, Chairman [...]

January 2019

Erika and Elena’s arthritis journey: Staying strong through the ups and downs

By |January 31st, 2019|Advice, Injection, Stories|

My daughter Elena was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis at age 2. Arthritis? That was an elderly person’s disease, I thought. I had no idea the depth of the disease or what would lie ahead for us. First, she started with redness and swelling in her knees. I took her into the doctor and they [...]

November 2018

Emily’s story: Navigating pain, planes and biologics

By |November 9th, 2018|Pain Tips, Stories|

Tanya Cassidy Irwin is a mother and Cassie and Friends community member from Langley, BC. This is her story of navigating pain, travel, medication and the unknown throughout her daughter Emily's journey with Oligoarticular JIA.    In September 2015 there was the most subtle of hitches in our daughter Emily's step. Within three weeks she [...]

December 2017

Please Help: Our Canakinumab campaign has reached the Ministry of Health

By |December 11th, 2017|Advocacy, News|

Cassie and Friends Society, in partnership with Arthritis Consumer Experts, is leading a call for the BC Government to drastically improve the outlook of children with SJIA by allowing reimbursement coverage for canakinumab for the small number of children who need it. Our campaign for equitable access has now reached the media, Premier John Horgan and Minister [...]

May 2017

Andrea’s Tips on Managing Medications, School and Opening Up…

By |May 23rd, 2017|Injection, News|

Teens Taking Charge: Andrea’s JIA After being diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis at the age of two, Andrea’s childhood and teen years were much different than those of her peers. Her experiences with doctors’ visits and medications from such a young age forced her to mature faster and understand things her friends could not. In [...]

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