Fighting the pain
Family happy to take part in arthritis fundraiser in Summerside
Many people think arthritis is a condition that affects only adults.
For nine-year-old Jacob MacDonald and his sevenyear-old brother, Logan, much of their young lives has been spent with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), a non-hereditary, autoimmune disease.
There is no known cause for the disease, and there is no cure. But there is hope.
“It’s important to bring awareness that this happens to children and not just adults,” said their mother, Mary Ann O’Halloran.
O’Halloran and her family joined the Walk to Fight Arthritis that was held recently on Summerside’s Waterfront Boardwalk.
Dealing with arthritis is difficult because the signs are often invisible.
“Logan would be sore and not be able to move. He would cry and scream in pain with no outward signs, so we took him to the emergency doctor and he suggested that it may be arthritis, and it went from there,” said O’Halloran. “The disease crept up and hit fast.”
A few years later O’Halloran’s older son was also diagnosed.
“My other son had a really sore back, and his neck was very sensitive. It turned out he had arthritis.”
Much of their life has involved the IWK hospital in Halifax.
“Many of us don’t think of children having arthritis, and I was completely ignorant to this before. It’s difficult as a family because we are limited to activities with their health, but we’re very fortunate with the IWK hospital constantly being involved, so the two boys are well maintained and just like every other child.”
She continued, “It’s something you take for granted when you have a healthy child who can run and walk, but if you are positive and have the health resources, it can make things easier.”
Organizer of the Summerside Walk to Fight Arthritis location, Hailey Arsenault, says her grandfather suffered for 30 years with the disease.
“He was tough and never complained about anything, so we didn’t know how bad things were until it was at the final stages,” Arsenault said.
Pain, stiffness and swelling of joints are some of the symptoms of arthritis that make mobility difficult.
“Mobility was a huge issue because we had to plan out almost three days in advance what he was going to do. For example, if he needed to see a doctor we would plan what pills he would need, who would drive him, and that kind of stuff.”
Arsenault concluded, “It’s not such a big deal when you love that person, it’s more about understanding what they are going through.”
“Many of us don’t think of children having arthritis, and I was completely ignorant to this before. It’s difficult as a family because we are limited to activities with their health, but we’re very fortunate with the IWK hospital constantly being involved, so the two boys are well maintained and just like every other child.” Mary Ann O’Halloran
Today, since 50 per cent of marriages end in divorce, there’s an element of truth in Marx’s remark. I doubt if a judge or a monkey could have a poorer batting average in choosing mates.
Socrates, another Greek philosopher, realizing marriage was a game of Russian roulette, counselled, “By all means marry. If you get a good wife you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one you’ll become a philosopher”.
The good news is, if they’re lucky and stay together, couples enjoy better health and quality of life than their unmarried peers. In 2011, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships reported that elderly couples, even when they quarrel, have more positive experiences with their partners. Researchers at the University of California added that, when recalling spats, older people even tend to rate their spouses more positively. This may be due to the fact that they begin to acknowledge their own mortality.
Consumer Reports states that satisfaction with social relationships also grows as we age. Seniors have a smaller, but closer circle of friends. Unfortunately, it’s also a time when we see close friends departing. How true! I’ve just returned from my 67th reunion at Harvard Medical School. Just a few of us are left. We wondered which of us would be the last one standing!
But since we cannot stop getting older, researchers also suggest several medical keys to healthy aging. They’re concerned that more than 70 per cent over age 60 exhibit hypertension and suggest weight reduction and smoking cessation. Starting a sound lifestyle at an early age, they confirm, is the prudent move.
Lastly, seniors must cultivate new social contacts, but this is not easy. Aristotle stressed that to have a good friend, “you must take the requisite amount of salt together.” Good friends are not born overnight. It’s usually history that binds people together.
Maybe in the end, whether a comedian or a Greek philosopher, we all in our own way become philosophers.
Next week: how I became the oldest person to descend on a rope (rappelling) from the top of Toronto’s City Hall. My wife was not amused. But it was an experience I will never forget. Why did I do it?