Let the Journey Begin...or Continue

Kathryn, 3 years old

   **Inspired by a fellow Joints in Motion Great Wall Team member Elise (Thanks) and Julie (from the movie Julie & Julia), I am really starting my blog.**  

Why did I decide to create a blog?

1) To share my story about my life with arthritis (The Back Story)

2) To say thank you and share my journey with all those who have supported me financially, emotionally and/or spiritually for my Great Wall Challenge (The Current Journey)

3) To continue to learn and inform others of the many faces of arthritis and how the Arthritis Society helps(The Ongoing Challenge)

Those of you who know me well know that brevity is not my strong point.  But the first step (or in this case) post, is the hardest.  Each week, leading up to, during and after the Marathon, I'm going to update this.

The Back Story

    This photo of me was taken on the day I came home from the Hospital for Sick Children in September 1966 with a diagnosis of what was then called juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.  

    I"m still wearing my hospital ID bracelet and my right knee is still swollen.  I'd spent a week away from my family who lived at Whaley's Corners near Brampton;   if you ask what I remember, blessedly it wasn't tests and needles and such.   Here are the main bad things:   I was mortified that they had put someone as grown up as me in a crib! (with cold, ugly green metal bars, no less); that a STRANGER (ie. nurse) stared at me while I had a bath in only an inch of tepid water; my Mom couldn't visit because she had the flu.

    The GOOD things: my grandmother visited everyday because she lived in Toronto and my Dad came most evenings to colour with me and show me what my sister had done at school.   At that time, treatment consisted of 8 aspirin a day.  My mother would crush 2 at a time in a teaspoon of raspberry jam.   At night, my leg was strapped into a plaster half cast from my thigh to my toes to keep my leg straight while I slept.  One of the things that led to my diagnosis was I tended to curl up when I slept and couldn't straighten my leg in the morning without lying in a warm bath.   I can't remember how long I wore the cast to bed........long enough that I had one or two new casts built as I grew.  I'd have to call my parents to carry me to the bathroom because the cast was too heavy and cumbersome for me to manoeuvre on my own.

The Current Journey

    Most of you will have seen my sponsor web page....but do you understand what an undertaking the Great Wall Marathon is?   Just look at some of the steps I'm going to have to climb.

"This is NOT a race, it is DEFINITELY a journey!" 

- Kathryn

If you look at the video, notice at 2:28...it's a Joints in Motion participant! And at 2:53 a JIM volunteer !

I will continue to fundraise until they tell me I can't. (I believe that's 2 months after the event.)  I believe when I reach one goal, I celebrate, give thanks and reach even higher. 

My training started in January.   My main walking days were Monday Thursday and Saturday.  Guess how many of those were freezing cold or slippery?   We took to indoor tracks when necessary, which was often.

I got the flu on February 28th, then a flare-up in my left knee and I haven't trained since.   Worried? Yes.  Giving up? NO.   Test-driving my leg this week and back to the doctor on Friday.   We've got time to get this sorted out.

The Ongoing Challenge

   Did you know that March is Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month?  Among children in Canada, one in 1,000 boys and girls under the age of 16 is affected and it is one of our nation's most common chronic diseases.

I was lucky enough to be diagnosed quickly and although for me it is a chronic disease with periodic flare-ups, it has never become as aggressively debilitating as it can be for many children.  Research for early diagnosis, improved treatments and ultimately a cure is necessary.