With the school year having come to an end, now is the time
for a well deserved summer break.
My daughter had a really good year at school and is now
ready to move on to grade 12; her final year of high school. Exciting and
scary, a year with a lot of lasts and firsts is laying ahead for her. She will
have her last visit with the pediatric rheumatologist, and the first one with
her adult specialist. She will start her last year of high school and her first
year of college and so many more milestones are in her future. Pretty proud
momma here, she’s accomplishing so much and seems to let arthritis get in her
way of doing whatever it is she chooses to do. We have just finished off a
study about how arthritis affects teenagers, she put quite a bit of time into
that. She also wrote an essay that is featured on this site, for the world to
read.
We were approached through this blog and I’ve written a
little entry as well:
 |
| My bunch! |
As for my son… He has had a great year in many ways as well.
He has ended his 9 years at our little country school and is now ready to move
on to the big high school in town. A new
start with lots of great opportunities to explore for him. Arthritis wise it
hasn’t been a super year. Joint injections, starting with humira, scary
allergic reaction…and no improvement to show for it.
Hence the start of yet
another new therapy.
Certolizumab.
Just recently approved
for pediatric use. He is enrolled in a study and as of tomorrow we will have to
make many road trips to the Calgary Children’s Hospital. So truly; the “summer
break” is really just a break from school. So far we have our first 3
appointments booked: July 2nd, 7th, and 10th.
Many will follow; we shall see how to keep up with them. Here’s to hoping this drug will work for my
son. I’m hoping he will play sports for his high school, keeping my fingers
crossed the frequency of his medical appointments and the arthritis itself won’t
be an obstacle that prevents him from doing this.
Tomorrow is the first step on our new road, our alternate
route, but if it leads us where we need to go, any route will do! Besides, are
the back roads not the most beautiful and surprising ones we can travel?!
