  
Thank you to all of our Fabulous Team Captains and participants for walking in the
Ann Arbor Arthritis Walk.
We appreciate and need your support,
especially in these difficult times.
The statewide goal for the Michigan Arthritis Walk was $335,000. We are not quite there. But together we can do it. You can still fundraise and turn in money. To help you, we are extending the fundraising deadline. You now have until July 30th to turn in money to be eligible for prizes.
You can download a prize sheet by
clicking on the link to the left.
Team photographs will be sent to you and posted to the website. See link on the left side.
THANK YOU!!!
Meet Owen,
the 2009 Ann Arbor Arthritis Walk Honoree!
It was the summer of 2006 and Owen was just 3 years-old when his mother, Sherry, and grandmother noticed him limping and dragging his right leg. Even though he wasn’t complaining, he kept limping, his ankle began to swell and some mornings he would wake up stiff. This first visit to the pediatrician’s office was the beginning of an extremely long year and a half of doctors’ visits and missed diagnoses. Sherry voiced her growing concern to the pediatrician during these visits but was told that he was just “a boy, and they play hard.” In the summer of 2007, the family took a vacation and Sherry had seen enough to know something else was going on with her son. Owen limped during the entire vacation, never complained and actually began to look as though he was getting used to walking in this new fashion. Upon returning home she calmly demanded her pediatrician send Owen to see a specialist.
An Orthopedic surgeon examined Owen thoroughly and ran blood tests. When the blood work came back, he was immediately sent to the Pediatric Rheumatology Department at the University of Michigan. In December of 2007, Owen received the diagnosis of Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. He also tested positive for ANA, or antinuclear antibody, which meant he was at greater risk of developing eye inflammation and thus, must regularly see a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. Owen began taking an NSAID called Naproxen twice a day and has since moved to taking a stronger NSAID called Sulindac to manage the arthritis in his knees, ankles and left hand. While the medication seems to be helping and he has more good days than bad, the medication leaves him extremely fatigued for a kindergartener.
Last April was the premier of “Owen’s Excavators,” the family’s team, at the Arthritis Foundation’s Annual Ann Arbor Arthritis Walk. They raised $3,541 for the Arthritis Foundation. Although Sherry’s primary goal is to raise funds for vital arthritis research, Sherry also, wants to create more awareness in the medical community and in the community at large, that yes, children do get arthritis.
For more information, please contact
Laurie Rupp at 800-968-3030 x. 230
Click To Send E-mail |
