One challenge I think I might face in reaching my life goals
is surgery. My goal in life is to “make my arthritis hurt less”. So, one step I might have to take to get
there is having ankle surgery. My left ankle was the first part of my body that
began to show signs of rheumatoid arthritis. My ankle has been through a lot
and I have tried many things to fix it. First, I got better shoes (Asics). Then,
I got ankle splints. And now I have custom shoe orthotics. My left ankle is so
bad now that when I stand, my foot turns in and now my ankle nearly touches the
ground. While “surgery” is a challenge that I have to face, it is also a
solution.
Another challenge I might face on my way to reaching my
goal is friends. At the time I’m writing this my social life isn’t the greatest,
but I fear it will get worse soon if I don’t get a handle on my arthritis. I am
scared to go to school in my wheelchair because what people will think of me. I
am scared to miss work because people always say I’m lucky; but they don’t get that
I still have to make up all the work by myself without a teacher. Worst of all,
I’m scared of being absent because when I come back kids say mean things like
“you are in this class still” or “why are you here”. And if they don’t do that,
they say mean things when I sit down like “you don’t belong here” or “get out
of my seat”. That kind of stuff really
gets to me, because I just want to make friends. And what really sucks is that
I can’t do anything about this.
The third and final thing I will talk about is myself. Yes
I said myself. I think I’m my own biggest challenge/obstacle. Every day I wake
up not wanting to go on, not wanting to fight the arthritis any more. Every
single day I am in pain. Every day I’m fatigued and just don’t want to do
anything. But I have one solution, one reason to keep on fighting, and that is
my family. I have an amazing brother who cares about me and loves me. I have an
amazing dad who plays with me and watches TV with me. And I have the most wonderful mom in the world. My mom comes to every doctor’s appointment, every surgery, every infusion. My awesome mom even learned to use my port, give me shots, and even set up my infusion so that I can do it at home instead of always going to the hospital. Without them I don’t know what I’d do. I love my family with all of my heart, ALL OF IT.
