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Kristin Pattie

Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:18 PM

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Monday, September 28, 2009 10:36 PM
Posts: 3, Visits: 5

My Name Is Kristin Pattie .. I'm 17 years old with JRA and it's been that way since the time I was two. My fingers are crippled in ways that are sometimes hard to look at, my legs are difficult as well one's longer than the other which makes me walk with a limp, and the Arthritis has pushed my jaw line back to make it look as though I have no chin at all. I have improved greatly over the years with the help of Dupont Hospital For Children and their Amazing staff. When I was first Diagnosed I was on gold medicine untill I was around 10 when they switched me over to Kemo & a twice a week injection of Enbrel Which works amazingly I might add. When I was About 13 they took me off the Kemo which actually made me feel much better. For Grade school I Attended St. Joesphs School in Collingdale , Pa. They Didn't do one thing to help my situation. The school had many stairs and for someone with this diseas I Hope some agree when I say Stiffness in the morning is The WORST ! Well because of this I was Constanly Late but the school looked past the JRA and said I was using this as an excuse and pununished me for this. So when I did arive at school I had to walk up FIVE flights of steps with a backpack that weighed more than I did at the time. The school did nothing about this either , the most they said they could do was provide me with an extra set of books so I no longer had to carry them which was appericated but because of my constant lateness they did not allow me to go on school trips or even attend my 8th grade graduation. My stiffness is something that I shouldn't be punished for ! Along with that the kids didn't take well to my differences I was unable to pertisipate in sports & other things the kids my age liked so for this I was constanly teased and reminded of what was wrong with me. When I moved away from Collingdale I enterted school in Ridley, Pa. Ridley High School Has some Comidations like an elevator instead of stairs which also is much appericated but being 15 with about 800 other kids looking at you because your different makes you want to stay as unnoticed as possible so I didn't take the elevator. I wanted to fit in I didn't want to be ridiculed for something I couldn't help. That didn't stop them. One day when I was walking home a car full of senior boys followed me all the way home taunting me and yelling things to me that made me no longer want to be there. The constant late thing was still the same and again the school didn't understand about the stiffness in the morning ! So again I was punished for something I couldn't help. I eventually went on Ridley High School Homebound so that I no longer had to see the stairs of the students that made me feel out of place and the lateness was not an issue. The teachers came to my house which made everything alot easier but I had to have something from my doctor every three months & with the scheduling that Dupont has it isn't the easiest thing in the world to get an Appointment so MRS. TRAVIS who claimed she was incharge of Homebound cut me off and I was out of school for a little over a year because of this nonsence. At the end of the last school year I had handed in my papers from the doctor so that I could be back on the Homebound by the start of this School year. When I went to ridley to see when my classes would begin MRS.TRAVIS had told me that the papers could no longer work they were expired. I Don't think this is fair because My condition is not going to change in THREE MONTHS its going to be the same for the rest of my life and No matter how hard I try to explain this to someone they just don't understand.

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