Motherhood & Living with Arthritis

Mima

Hello, 

My name is Jemima and this is my first post  I have had Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis since I was 8 years old; and now at 44 I have an amazing 23-year-old daughter and a determined & loving 10-year-old son. 

All in all motherhood has been a struggle and especially other parents & social workers miss conception of my disease and its validity has been disturbing at times. I’d be really interested to hear other people’s experiences, it has been a very lonely journey. 

The reason I was prompted to post today was a masters student at Aberdeen University asked if I would participate in a study about physical disability and parenthood. This is something that I feel is deeply under funded and misunderstood, a subject very close to my heart  

In the meantime personally I can’t wait to get to know other parents, those new to it or old hands at the job, lots of love x

PS I am taking part in this research but I am in no way associated with it, I’m really here looking to make friends that understand the challenge of living this disease.

Ellen

Hello @Mima Jemima Welcome to the Online Community.

Thank you so much for your post it is it very interesting. We do indeed have parents here with children on various ages it would be great to see a conversation on the subject.

While you are waiting for some people to come along with their story I am going to attach some links which you might find interesting:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2020/march/i-don-t-know-where-i-d-be-without-my-little-gem-of-a-son/

and this is a thread from earlier this year:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/57494/managing-osteoarthritis-young-children-perimenopause

The study you are participating in sounds very interesting and long overdue.

Best wishes

Ellen.

frogmorton

Hi @Mima (Jemima)

Nice to meet you 😊

I think the study sounds interesting too. I myself have children in their early 20s now, but they weren't when this first started.

I doubt if i have much useful to add, but would be very interested in the outcome

Toni x