"Summer Break"

     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.

http://www.arthritistoday.org/what-you-can-do/arthritis-stories/growing-up/merel-morskate.php

     We were approached through this blog and I’ve written a little entry as well:

http://www.arthritistoday.org/what-you-can-do/arthritis-stories/growing-up/merel-and-koen-morskate.php 

 

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 2^nd, 7^th, and 10^th. 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?!