Hi, I’m Isabel

I was diagnosed at 18 months with Polyarticular Arthritis, which means that I can flare in more than 3 places at a time. I have had JIA in most of my joints but the places that I flare the most are my knees and ankles.

I was not really aware of having arthritis until I was 8 years old. This was when I came off my medication for the first and flared. When I had this flare, I was in a lot of pain and my mum had to carry me into school every day. I missed out on all of my PE lessons because I could only just walk.

When I got treated for this I had an anaesthetic. This meant I was asleep for my injections and I couldn’t feel anything. Unfortunately, this meant I couldn’t eat anything until after my injections. This was hard for me because I love food, but this did stop my pain so that was good.

Before that event I didn’t know why I was taking methotrexate, but I do now.

When I was first diagnosed I was on oral methotrexate which was the first medication I had along with Enbrel. I found methotrexate horrible and it always made me sick. I can only remember my dad giving this to me and him holding a bowl ready for me to be sick into. I now find the colour yellow makes me feel sick because the medication was yellow. I came of Enbrel later and went onto injected methrotrexate which I preferred much more than having it orally.

The things that annoy me are when you are flaring you can’t play sport and I like playing netball and I like to swim. I swim twice a week with a swimming squad and when I flare they adapt what they are doing so I can still join in.

The things I enjoy are drawing, knitting and anything that is creative. I think this is because when I was really little I couldn’t run around or do anything outside so I used to sit inside and draw with my friend Betsy. 

And that is my story.