丽莎·布鲁姆在一岁时被诊断患有关节炎,但她并没有让关节炎定义她。
A challenging childhood
“It doesn’t define who you are.” This is how Lisa Bloom describes arthritis. That’s a pretty amazing thing to say, considering she’s had it as long as she can remember.
“My journey with arthritis started when I was about one year old,” Lisa explains. “Evidently (since I don’t remember) I had started walking…and then I stopped. My parents took me to a series of doctors and eventually ended up at the Mayo clinic.” That’s where she was diagnosed, at eighteen months, with what was then called “juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.”
The first flare-up that shecan记得发生在她十二岁的时候。在20世纪70年代早期,医生们对关节炎的治疗方法与现在非常不同。他们的建议是尽可能久坐,所以丽莎不得不停止所有的体育活动。她说:“这对我来说非常痛苦。”“我从一个非常外向、投入的人变成了一个非常内向的人。”
她回忆起当时的感觉,就好像她是世界上唯一患有关节炎的孩子。这就是为什么她和她的丈夫李如此致力于支持关节炎基金会为患有关节炎的孩子举办的夏令营。她想象着,如果她也能从事这种活动,事情会有怎样的不同。“我就不会感到如此孤独了。”
“It was very scary when I was very young. Because I would go into the rheumatologist’s office and I would see all these elderly people in wheelchairs, and I thought…that’s going to be me.”
An active adulthood
Lisa credits the fact that she has stayed healthy and active to the good medical care she’s had. Now retired from her job as a software designer, she and her husband Lee enjoy cooking, hiking, scuba diving, walking their dog, and snow shoeing.
It hasn’t been an easy road. For one thing, as so many arthritis patients know, the signs are not always obvious. “I’ve had people say to me ‘I don’t believe you,’” she says. “Because I don’t have all the obvious signs of somebody with arthritis, so my hands look good.”
At other times though, it’s all too visible. “When I’m having a flare up in my knee, it swells up such that I really can’t pull a pant leg over. It swells up to the point where the skin can’t push out anymore.”
尽管如此,丽莎说,她仍然对未来充满希望,因为所有的治疗进展。“这些年来,我吃了很多不同的药物,因为在某些时候,它们不再起作用。所以,有更多的选择,而我还没有达到终点,这真的很令人鼓舞。”
It has occasionally been challenging to get an appointment with a rheumatologist. Recently, she was calling around to get an appointment with a new one and the earliest available was three months out. “That just tells me that that we need more rheumatologists or there needs to be some change.”
A promising future
为了加速这一变化,创造一个每个人都能在需要时预约到风湿病医生的未来,丽莎和她的丈夫李怀着节日的精神,给关节炎基金会送了一份非常慷慨的礼物。这是对其他支持者的一份礼物:加倍!
布洛姆夫妇的捐赠将有助于我们扩大风湿病学家的研究机会,重点关注最严重短缺的社区。他们希望这能激励其他人尽其所能,“支持这个组织,所以它也会支持你。””
Celebrating holiday wins
Living with arthritis can be a constant battle, and people like Lisa know that celebrating the small wins can be encouraging – especially at this time of year.
Since stress can exacerbate arthritis symptoms, a holiday win for the Blooms looks like quiet time at home, baking with their son. Inspired by watching the Great British Baking Show, they have challenged themselves recently to learn some elaborate dishes – ones that take shape over several days. Whether it’s a quiet evening of baking, a brisk hike or a getaway, they don’t take any of it for granted.
Arthritis is a life-altering disease for nearly 60 million Americans like Lisa. With a gift today, you can help conquer it.Learn moreand help us meet the challenge match offered by the Blooms!
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