Emily+C’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech

=Title of Speech=

A Life Without Arthritis

=Text of Speech=

We live in a world where we are constantly judged. Whether that be on what we wear, what we say, what we do or what we might do. It could even be on stereotypes and the prejudice already pointed towards something you may not even know much about. We have these pre-programed ideas in our minds of things which we just don’t understand and don’t try to. It’s what annoys and frustrates me so much about our society.

Every year since eighth grade, I’ve participated in an event called the Arthritis Walk, which is exactly what it sounds like, a fundraiser where we walk to fund research for all types of arthritis. I do this to support my best friend. No, my best friend is not an 80 year old, but a girl. A seventeen year old girl named Fran who was diagnosed with polyarticular idiopathic arthritis or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when she was only 12 years old and recently fibromyalgia as well. I actually get the whole 80 year old best friend thing a lot, it’s not their fault and I understand that. If I was in their position, I would probably think the same thing when I first hear arthritis. However, there is this common misconception that arthritis only targets older people, when in actuality it holds no prejudice towards anyone of any age.

Although that’s what really frustrates me.

The fact that there is confusion. The fact that there is a disorder that is the number one cause of disability in our country, that affects 51 million people, 300,000 of them being children, and barely anyone pays attention to it, unless you or someone you know has been affected by it. There are eleven, eleven states in which there aren’t any pediatric rheumatologists, which are doctors to treat disorders, like Fran’s. And for the state’s that actually do have those doctors, most are lucky to get five or six throughout the entire state.

For those of you who don’t know, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune disease that targets the joints making them become inflamed and extremely painful for anyone who has it. It basically makes your body attack itself. Right now, Fran has developed it almost throughout her whole body, including her knees, feet, hands, and jaw and that’s not even half of it. The only place that has not been affected yet is her spine and hopefully that won’t happen anytime soon, because she doesn’t need anymore.

Everyday Fran takes multiple pills and vitamins to lower the pain, some days it’s even more than ten at a time. There are days when Fran has to miss school because the pain is too much, sometimes it can last weeks at a time, depending how long the flares lasts.

The arthritis may sometimes keep her from doing the things she loves, such as sports and art, but she tries to never let it keep her down. Fran has this amazing talent where she creates these beautiful works of art, but when the arthritis takes over her hands and keeps her from drawing it can be frustrating. She had to give up soccer when she was diagnosed at twelve because it was too risky.

But I don’t think I’ve ever heard her complain to her friends, not once. I just don’t think she wants us to worry, although at times I feel like she should. Just recently actually, Fran got sick, which made her arthritis flare up, myself and a couple of our friends went over to her house to give her cookies. Little did we know that what was flaring was her jaw, which means that she probably shouldn’t talk. And Fran talks a lot, telling her to stop talking would be like telling her to stop breathing. So, she didn’t tell us she was hurting and we stayed and talked to her for about an hour, it was when we left that she was in real pain because she had been talking.

In the America that I want to grow old in, I want to see a place where no one has to live like this. No one has to hide things from their friends and lie to them, just to spare feelings. No one should have to have visit their best friend in the hospital numerous of times because of a disorder that put her in that much pain.

In the America that I want to grow in, I want to see my best friend having the chance to be able to live her life to a full extent, free of her pain, free of arthritis.

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