Aubrey Mills Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Youth Honoree Aubrey was a healthy, active 8 year old child when suddenly an unexplained limp & complaints of her leg hurting stopped her parents in their tracks. For the first few months, it was thought to just be growing pains, but finally one orthopedic surgeon immediately pointed out Aubrey’s red, extremely swollen knee. He referred her to a pediatric rheumatologist where she was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, formerly called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Aubrey was fortunate in the beginning because her arthritis was well controlled for much of her life. However in 2017, things took a turn for the worse. Her diagnosis was changed to extended oligoarticular JIA, meaning that it began with a few joints but spread to more areas later. Today, Aubrey has constant pain in nearly every joint from head to toe and requires more aggressive treatments, like biweekly painful injections. She is still struggling to find the right combination of medications to treat her arthritis. |
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