2010's Appointment Adventures

This is just to help those of you who are interested learn how I got from 'nearly grown out of JIA' to wrist fusion,

I have not been on any kind of medication since I was first diagnosed with JIA/RA.

However, I always had problems. I had some pain and locking in my wrists, but doctors and my mother assured me it was nothing to worry about. Looking back I realise I probably should have been more vocal, perhaps screamed it from the rooftops? Even my P.E teacher asked me about my 'akward hands' and told me that I was going to break my thumbs if I kept using them to take pressure off my wrists.
In January 2010 the pain became unbearable, the locking couldn't be unlocked anymore. I was tearing up at the slightest knock and howling when my joints were cold and stiff. So I decided (and was pushed by the H2B) to visit my GP. She told me that it could be some small piece of bone preventing me bending or moving my wrist but she highly doubted it because my medical notes said I had practically grown out of my arthritis. It might just be a sprain or something she said and sent me for an x-ray.

How wrong she was! It WAS a piece of bone, or several pieces of bone that had become 'warped' and 'deformed' over time, preventing me moving my right wrist. She referred me to a specialist in the hospital who sent me for more x-rays. The D1 ( we shall call him D1 as he was the first doctor) told me that my arthritis was worse, that in the past two years my bones had shifted and were grinding together becoming 'deformed' and sometimes trapping nerves. He told me he would be referring my case to a specialist (makes me question what the hell I was doing wasting time with D1 then if he couldn't do anything for me?)

Anyway, D2 (the specialist) sent me for even more x-rays just to check again. He told me the same as D1 basically and told me there were two options; a wrist fusion or a wrist replacement. He told me he would refer me to the surgeon who would decided which was the better option.

So after one GP and two doctor's it seemed that the NHS weren't through with me yet. The surgeon was better than anyone else I'd actually seen so far, he talked me through everything and explained my x-rays. It turned out that there was actually only one option, replacement was ruled out as he said my bones were too fragile and slender to support the mechanism. Wrist fusion it was then!!!