Growing up with arthritis
Rosie Doiron has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for most of her life.
Diagnosed at the tender age of three, she has spent more than five decades learning how to adapt to life with the disease.
When Rosie was a toddler, her parents noticed that her knees and feet were swollen and that she didn’t want to walk. Her mother and father, who had immigrated to Canada from Spain and Italy, were devastated by the diagnosis. They did everything they could to find answers and care for their daughter, even travelling with her to Boston for a second opinion.
“My parents would even drag me to see evangelical preachers and psychics to try and heal me,” she recalls.
Rosie remembers her mother being protective, which was understandable, since she had lupus herself. But she missed out on having a carefree childhood free from pain.
“I have memories of intense pain in my feet when I woke up,” she remembers. “I couldn’t join my classmates for skating in the winter, since I was not supposed to be out in cold weather.”
Hope for a future without arthritis
Over the years, arthritis affected her feet, knees, wrists and hands. She underwent foot reconstruction in her 20s and, eventually, needed a knee replacement at 46.
But throughout it all, Rosie found something that helped her feel strong: movement.
She discovered weightlifting and quickly fell in love with the gym. She also cycled, took step aerobics classes and stayed active in whatever ways she could. Even when arthritis meant modifying how she could exercise, whether that meant changing the grip on her weights or using a wrist brace, she kept going.
“I honestly believe that lifting weights for 30 years has helped keep my arthritis at bay,” she shares.
Today, Rosie is retired after 31 years as a teacher and makes movement part of her life. After a recent foot surgery, she returned to the gym as soon as she could. She now spends about two hours a day at the gym and says she feels stronger for it.
Rosie knows that everyone’s experience with arthritis is different. She has faced serious flares, surgeries and limitations, and she recognizes that some people experience much more severe disease progression. Still, she hopes her story can offer encouragement to people who are newly diagnosed, and especially to those who are diagnosed with arthritis as children, who wonder what their future will look like.
“Don’t lose hope, don’t be discouraged. Work with it,” she says. “Rest when you have to. Take your meds. And most important, move your body.”
Research that moves people of all ages
For Rosie, research represents the possibility that people diagnosed today can have more information, more treatment options, and more hope than she and her family had when she was a child.
She wants to help make that future possible. Rosie has even considered donating her body to Dalhousie University after she passes so it can be used to help the future of arthritis research. Since she has decades of experience living with arthritis, it is one more way she hopes to advance treatments for the disease. She credits her orthopedic surgeons and rheumatologists for making a positive impact on her life.
Rosie’s experience has shaped the message she most wants to share with parents whose children are diagnosed with juvenile arthritis: don’t despair.
She encourages families to help children stay active in ways that are appropriate for them and to take advantage of the treatments available today. There are now options that were not available when she was growing up. She wishes that her mother, who also had arthritis, could have had those options available to her too.
“Your child can and will live a fulfilling life with lots of promise,” she says.
This story reflects Rosie’s personal experience. The views shared are her own and do not necessarily represent those of Arthritis Research Canada. If you have questions about your medications or treatment plan, talk to your family doctor or rheumatologist.
