In June, she had cataracts removed from both eyes, the result of years of steroid eye drops used to treat uveitis.
Uveitis, inflammation of the middle part of the eye, came about because of her other condition: juvenile arthritis.
My daughter was barely 3 when she was diagnosed. She’s 8 now. Until her cataract surgery in June, Maggie spent almost three months virtually blind after quickly growing cataracts obscured her vision.
An estimated 300,000 children in the United States suffer from arthritis, including about 7,200 in Virginia. Arthritis is the number one cause of blindness in children under the age of 15.
The reality is that arthritis can strike someone at any age, in many different forms. Lupus, osteoarthritis, scleroderma, bursitis, fibromyalgia, gout, Lyme disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, spondylitis, Raynaud’s phenomenon—they’re all listed among more than 100 different kinds of arthritis. It’s the leading cause of disability in the country, affecting some 50 million adults.
Chances are, if you don’t have arthritis, you know someone who does. And there is no cure—only medications, surgeries and many various attempts to alleviate the pain and relieve inflammation.
So each holiday season, runners and walkers take part in the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis, a yearly fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation. Money goes to prevent, control and work toward a cure for arthritis and related diseases. Each event includes a 5K run, a 3K walk and a children’s fun run.
The Hampton Roads honoree this year is Hampton, Va., resident Mikayla Bowers, a 14-year-old freshman at Phoebus High School. Mikayla was diagnosed with juvenile psoriatic arthritis—one of the forms of juvenile arthritis—in Dec. 2011. Like many children with the autoimmune disease, she’s on a strict regimen of anti-inflammatory and injectable medications.
By walking with her team, “Arthritis Ain’t No Monkey Business,” which she is heading up with her friend Madison Gaglio, Bowers says she hopes to show that arthritis doesn’t have to stop anyone from having a full and active life.
“You’re showing people you don’t let your disease overcome you, and you don’t let it overcome your life,” she says.
As for Maggie, her arthritis requires regular injections of the disease-fighting drugs methotrexate and Humira along with a medicine-cabinet’s worth of eye drops. But she can see again. And she’ll be walking this fall.