Get Healthy

We all know someone with arthritis—a parent, a grandparent, a friend. Maybe we even experience the occasional stiff or achy joint. Arthritis is the number one cause of physical disability in the United States. For most people, it is an age-related condition, brought on by years of wear and tear. Some people, however, deal with the more debilitating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease that makes a person’s body attack itself.

Jennifer Wescott, 36, of Crown Point, has been battling this form of arthritis most of her life.

It started with a sprained ankle when Wescott was 3. When the ankle wouldn’t heal, doctors dismissed the continued swelling, saying she must be “babying” it. But the pain and swelling persisted. Her wrists began to hurt, her knees swelled. Finally, blood tests revealed the truth. Wescott was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA).

With little more than aspirin to combat pain and swelling, Wescott spent her childhood in and out of doctors’ offices, and physical therapy. “The hardest part was that I was different,” she says. “Being a kid is hard enough. Kids are mean. I was definitely a target.”

There is no cure for RA, and its cause is unknown. It can appear at any age, and while adult onset is more common, roughly 300,000 children are now living with RA. Current treatments include medicines that suppress the immune system (so it will stop attacking tissues), or that block various stages of the attack—and the body’s subsequent reaction.

Fortunately, the treatments can help prevent the joint damage RA does, but most of the drugs come with side effects, including an increased risk of developing cancer. A treatment may or may not work, or may stop working as the body develops a tolerance to it. Wescott has experienced all of these, going through four different treatments in the last five years.

And there are the surgeries. In all, there have been at least eight. When it became difficult for her to wear shoes, doctors fused Wescott’s toes to make them straight. Her hands have ten artificial joints between them. “The plastic joints I have in my fingers do not hurt. They don’t get swollen,” she explains. “The downside is that they will always need to be replaced.” They’ve been replaced twice already. Add recuperation time. And physical therapy. It takes time—and patience.

Wescott takes it all in stride. She is a teacher and is working toward special education certification. She is mother to an active 5-year-old boy.

“It’s been difficult,” she admits, “but I guess I’ve always thought, ‘It is what it is.’ So, you try to make the most of what you have.

“I try to do as much as I can physically. I walk. I wrestle with my son. I’ll put him on my feet and do leg lifts. He thinks it’s fun, and I’m getting a workout.”

After fighting RA in silence for all these years, Wescott has decided it’s time to work for increased research and public awareness about the disease. She’s not exactly comfortable with the sudden spotlight, but she’s determined.

Last year, she attended an Arthritis Walk in southern California, and this year, on October 3, she is leading a team on the NW Indiana Let’s Move Together Arthritis Walk at Hidden Lake Park in Merrillville (letsmovetogether.org). “The walk brings awareness to the community,” she says. “It is a good way for people to come out to support those who have arthritis and to walk for those who can’t.”

The Arthritis Foundation (arthritis.org) has named Wescott the Northwest Indiana Arthritis Hero for 2009, and her story will catapult to the national level next year as the National Arthritis Walk Honoree for 2010.

As she moves forward, Wescott will continue to confront the physical and emotional challenges that come with RA, just as she has done in the past. “That’s a funny word,” she says of the title “hero.” “I don’t feel strong. I just rolled with the punches and did what I needed to do. There’re definitely times I get upset and cry. I’ve had pity parties and cursed the powers that be and wondered what my life would be like if I didn’t have this, and then I think, ‘It’s not so bad. I have good family and friends.’”