Aubrey’s Story 

Aubrey was a healthy, active 8-year-old child when her sudden and unexplained limp and complaints of leg pain stopped her parents in their tracks. For the first few months, it was thought to just be growing pains. Finally, an orthopedic surgeon pointed out Aubrey’s red, extremely swollen knee. He referred her to a pediatric rheumatologist where she was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). 

Aubrey was fortunate her arthritis was well controlled for much of her life. However, in 2017, things took a turn for the worse. Her diagnosis was changed to extended oligoarticular JIA, meaning that it began with a few joints but spread to more areas later. Today, Aubrey has constant pain in nearly every joint from head to toe and requires more aggressive treatments, like painful, biweekly injections. She is still struggling to find the right combination of medications to treat her arthritis.