a new member and a daughter with JRA

[Guest guest]

Hello..

My name is Manal and I am from Amman/Jordan ( in the Middle East ), a

mom of a 5.5 years old daughter and and a 19 months old son.

There are no support groups in Jordan, and I don't know anyone who has

JRA or whose child has JRA, therefore, I was thrilled to know that

there is a support group of JRA on the web.

My daugther ( Clara ) was disagnosed with Pauciarticular JRA when she

was 24 months old ( in 2002 ) , it was really scary at the beginning,

and like every concerned mother, I got really scared, I searched every

web site I know for info and I got even more scared, I even searched

my father's medical books and got opinions from over 10 doctors.

My daughter went on medications, ( Naproxen and Ranitidine ) , I

really faced a hard time in having her take the naproxen, but finally

I found out that if I crush it and mix it with some popping candy (

that powdered candy or what they call magic dust the pops in the mouth

) and give it to my daughter with a spoon followed by some water, my

daughter would take it eagerly, during summer time I also gave it to

her crushed with some ice cream.

I found the the Popping Candy thing worked like magic.

My daughter stayed on medication for two years, and then the desease

was inactive, so the doctor advised to stop the medication gradually,

and the JRA has been under remission for the past 2 years but the

regular visits to the ophthalmologist continued.

Last month the eye check up showed that she had severe uveitis in her

right eye, and it was accompanied by a pain in her knee joint, but she

took medications and it is all gone, but we are to continue with the

regular visit to the eye doctor every 3 or 4 months.

In general, during and after the treatment my daughter was and still

very energetic and hyper active, she's always running about and

jumping from one place to another, and no one could ever guess that

she has JRA.

But I wonder, would she ever outgrow JRA?

Regards,

Manal Goussous