Blog Post: "Oh it's just my Rheumatism acting up again."

Well, I am here to tell you Arthritis is not just an older persons affliction. There are many children diagnosed with Arthritis as babies. And then there is the whole population of Young Adults living with one of the over 100 types of Arthritis.

I was one of those babies diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at the ripe young age of 18 months old after many gruling weeks and months because they didn't know what it was and probably didn't believe a baby could get such an illness. Now I am 40, in the prime of my life. For many years throughout my young adulthood, I did not have an adequate support system of persons that I could identify with. No one that looked like me, walked like me, lived with pain like me, went to the Doctor a lot like me and was trying to live like me. I succeeded in making life work for me, but it would have been so nice to have someone that I could talk to that identified with me and my Rheumatism.

Now there is. I found there were many others that felt the same way and I made a connection with these beautiful friends of mine and this year we had our second annual Arthritis Introspective Gathering in Las Vegas!!

There are also local support system gatherings. We have one monthly in Phoenix. There is one monthly in Tucson. And there are more being held nationally. Please visit our website for more information at www.arthritisintrospective.org

Feel free to contact me Samantha Johnson at msslj3@gmail.com or (602)423-1947 or our local Phoenix Support System Leader Pete Fisher at pfisher@dpaarchitects.com