A Sad Event on a Valentines Day

February 14th to most people is the day of love. Couples make reservations at the fanciest restaurants, offices are filled with flowers and chocolates, people get in engaged, girls cry about being alone. I on the other hand cried for another reason. February 14th changed my life.

The doctor walked in to a room filled with zoo animals and pastel colors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Already in the room were two parents whose faces were ridden with fear, even though words of encouragement to their child spilled out of their mouths and one terrified fifteen-year-old who sat on the edge of the cold, hard hospital bed. The doctor however was very optimistic, showing no sign of alarm. I remember him shaking our hands, while introducing himself. He was a very kind, soft spoken doctor. However, after he told me what the diagnosis was I do not recall much information. I was in shock and anxious of what the future may bring.

Level one flashed in the elevator, the nurse rolled me down to the very end of the hallway and into the lab area where they would take my blood so they could run various tests. Hours later I had met with a physical therapist, occupational therapist, several nurses, and the doctor again. When he began to write on the whiteboard in bold red print I felt myself losing oxygen, like I had forgotten to breathe. The room became dark and lonely, his words turned in to sounds, tears rushed down my face.

Poly Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, is one form of arthritis that affects boys and girls under the age of eighteen. Doctor Henrickson explained the joint disease and what it entails. My everyday routine would have to be altered. I would be unable to play soccer, the sport that I have played since I was a young child. I would be forced to suspend physical therapy for my previous knee injury because of how it could affect the PJIA. I would eventually be put on homebound my sophomore year of high school because I was unable to walk and do activities as a result of the pain. And I would spend one day every month meeting with him and my other caretakers so they could examine me. The doctor finished telling me what I could expect in the upcoming future and when he shut the door to allow my family some alone time, the three of us sat in the same positions and processed all that had happened and could happen.

February 14th for me with never be the typical mushy love day. It will be the day that my whole world was flipped upside down and the day that I stopped believing that just because I was a good person nothing bad would happen to me. It will always be the day that I started being an advocate for a disease that affects children/ teenagers all over the world.