This really says something about attitude. Wow.
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By Olyvia Carnate
The Oregonian, Copyright (c) July 13, 2001
http://www.oregonian.com/
Seventeen-year-old Angela Lotspelch meets adversity at nearly every turn, every day.
Common actions such as opening a car door or twisting an ice-cube tray are painful, difficult tasks.
Angela, who will be a senior at Roseburg, Oregon High School, has severe arthritis. The disease, which was originally diagnosed as a fever of unknown origin, began to develop two years ago.
At that time, she had severe pains in her abdomen and went to the doctor thinking maybe she had appendicitis. She was held overnight for observation while doctors ran a series of tests. That night, she ran a fever of 105 degrees, and her whole body broke out in a rash. Her Immune system weakened. Angela, a member of the varsity soccer team, was left unable to walk or move her limbs.
The problems continued for months, improving slightly after she took a regimen of medication. Angela went almost a year before having a relapse. This time, though, there was something new: her joints began to hurt.
"It scared me a lot,'" she recalls. Finally, after repeated blood tests, doctors diagnosed the arthritis, an affliction that leaves Angela exhausted. Sometimes, when she sits on the floor in the halls at school, she can barely get up without help.
Angela says she sometimes feared the disease might lead toward death. But now she's just frustrated because she can't do simple tasks, like washing her hair or brushing her teeth.
"I live in pain all day, every day," she says. Because of that, she's had to completely rearrange her life. But she's not bitter.
She's still dealing with pain in her joints but is taking medication to ease it. She also does stress-relieving exercises in the pool at the local YMCA every morning with her mother. The water cushions her joints and helps keep them loose.
"People are tested in all kinds of little ways," she says. She believes this illness is hers. "So that when big things come," she says, "I'm ready."
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Inspiration from a 17-Year-Old
Thanks I think I needed this today Shirley
I KNOW I needed this today !! Thankyou for sharing !!
Shee
Brave little girl!!!!!!!! Water exercise does help a lot. I think part of it is that the pressure is less than on dry land. Me, I want to live on the Challenger, (NO pressure in zero gravity) LOL I hope they can find something to help this young woman. There are new things every day. You would be surprised how many sufferers are under 30. A lot of them came from undiagnosed and therefore untreated strept throats.
Wow...I didn't know that about the strept. I saw a thing on TV about a woman with MS. She stings herself with honeybees several times a day, under the care of her doctor. There's something about the venom which greatly reduces her symptoms. It was an amazing story. I am so squeamish about bees (run from 'em sometimes if they don't leave me alone), so I watched the segment with a mixture of horror and fascination.
Bee stings work for some, but some people are allergic and don't even know it. This should only be done under a doctors care. My sister has MS and there are two new meds. for the condition. They are working wonders.
Oh, wow, no -- I'm certainly not suggesting someone do that on their own! This woman is under her MD's supervision.