Feeling Old

I don't know if many of you know this but when I was 15 years old I was diagnosed with Juvenille Rheumatoid Arthritis. It began with me getting a rash on my body and having sore joints and fevers the Dr. originally thought I had Lyme Disease, so I was put on antibiotics but the rash got worse, so I think I did more antibiotics. This was the summer before my freshman year in highschool so 1991 I think. Anyway, over the summer I was away for 3 weeks, first to yearbook camp and I felt fine except for some pain and swollen joints, then I went to my Aunt and Uncle's cabin and I would have weird swelling and pain in certain joints, the I went to my cousins house and more of the same. So long story short I went to an internal medicine Dr. and they did all kinds of tests and everything was coming back either negative or normal. I ended up with a high fever one night and my mom took me to the ER. My Dr. at the time said he was admitting me to the hospital and not letting me out until they figured out what was wrong with me. While in the hospital I had all kinds of tests done. I remember getting an ultrasound of my heart. I will never forget the day my rheumatologist(although I did not know that is who he was) walked in my room. He examined my and tested reflexes and asked questions and it was about 10 minutes later and he said "I think you have JRA." And that is indeed what I had. I was in a lot of pain and had to get water drained from each of my knees. I had to get Gold shots 1x a week and then get my blood drawn 1x a week as well. I lost a bunch of weight and I missed a lot of school. I remember hearing that there had been rumors that I was either dead or had gotten pregnant. I thought boy the people who thought I was dead sure got a shock when I showed up to school.
I suffered with this for about 3-4 years, taking medication, getting gold shots, getting blood work taken. I went into remission and was feeling good for quite a while. I would have some hip pain because I had degenerative arthritis in my hip. I felt great during my pregnancies. I would say just in the past 3 years I have been having more pain and problems with my hip.
So I went to the Dr. and got an xray and found that I have arthritis in my neck, my hip is really bad and I am actually going to get x-rays of that tomorrow for my rheumatologist. So it is very likely that a hip replacement is in my future. I heard the recovery is not too bad now with the newest technology.
I have a plan for exercise and weight loss with my Dr. so that I can take some weight off of my hip. I just need to stick to a plan and have more will power to stay on a diet plan.

On to more exciting news. I signed Gabriel up for Soccer and will possibly be signing Evan up for the special needs part of the program. Evan is getting Botox tomorrow, which is good because he is tight again. Not so good that I have to be at the hospital at 6:30am.