Can you remember a time that you were injured? Maybe you twisted your ankle, pulled a muscle, or sprained your wrist. Do you remember how that felt . . . the pain, the difficulty just doing a normal daily task, how you couldn't sleep at night because it hurt so much?
Now imagine having that kind of pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and you might begin to understand how someone with JIA feels. It's hard enough to get through a rough period; it's even harder to have to do so on a daily basis.
For the ordinary arthritis-free person getting ready in the morning is no big deal. They brush their teeth, do their hair, and get dressed without a problem. For me even something as simple as yawning causes my jaw excruciating pain. When I wake up I decide how I do my hair on how my wrists are feeling that day not on what outfit I'm wearing. For example if I'm feeling stiff in the morning that means straightening my hair that day is out of the question because it hurts.
What about driving? Most people do this without a second thought. I can't drive for long periods of time because my right ankle or "driving ankle" hurts when I do.
Wing Night . . . .I decide if I will go out with my friends depending on the amount of jaw pain I have that day. More often than not, when I do go to wing night, my jaw will be killing me by the time I get back home. Good times, huh?
But I just take it one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, and try not to let arthritis rule every aspect of my life.
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