Young!
By: Emily Hope
My story is a little different than others mainly because I’m so young, so here it goes. When I was only 5, I began to notice my fingers were bigger than normal and noticed my fingers were different than others. We went to my first doctor’s appointment to get them checked. They checked me for juvenile arthritis and the doctor said the test came back negative and he didn’t understand what it could be.
During the year I went to the doctor over 4 times for it and no doctor Knew what it could be. Then I changed doctors so when I was 15 (my age now) my new doctor got my ANA tested and it was low, so she sent me to a children’s hospital where I went to a RA specialist. Then for more and more blood work done and also x-rays, then she did an exam on my joints. To later find out I had fibromyalgia.
It was shocking because I am so young I’ve never known or met a young person to get it. It’s terrible, I’m in pain everyday and all day (I am not on meds because the medicine I used to be on hurt my stomach) but I’m trying my best to live my life as a “normal” teenager, but it is hard.
