Having been diagnosed with arthritis at age one, Lisa Bloom doesn’t let arthritis define her.
A challenging childhood
“It doesn’t define who you are.” This is how Lisa Bloom describes arthritis. That’s a pretty amazing thing to say, considering she’s had it as long as she can remember.
“My journey with arthritis started when I was about one year old,” Lisa explains. “Evidently (since I don’t remember) I had started walking…and then I stopped. My parents took me to a series of doctors and eventually ended up at the Mayo clinic.” That’s where she was diagnosed, at eighteen months, with what was then called “juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.”
The first flare-up that shecanremember happened when she was twelve. At that time, in the early 1970s, doctors approached arthritis very differently than they do today. Their advice was to be as sedentary as possible, so Lisa had to stop all physical activity. “It was pretty traumatic for me,” she says. “I went from being very outgoing and engaged to being very withdrawn.”
她回忆起当时的感觉，就好像她是世界上唯一患有关节炎的孩子。这就是为什么她和她的丈夫李如此致力于支持关节炎基金会为患有关节炎的孩子举办的夏令营。她想象着，如果她也能从事这种活动，事情会有怎样的不同。“我就不会感到如此孤独了。”
“It was very scary when I was very young. Because I would go into the rheumatologist’s office and I would see all these elderly people in wheelchairs, and I thought…that’s going to be me.”
An active adulthood
Lisa credits the fact that she has stayed healthy and active to the good medical care she’s had. Now retired from her job as a software designer, she and her husband Lee enjoy cooking, hiking, scuba diving, walking their dog, and snow shoeing.
It hasn’t been an easy road. For one thing, as so many arthritis patients know, the signs are not always obvious. “I’ve had people say to me ‘I don’t believe you,’” she says. “Because I don’t have all the obvious signs of somebody with arthritis, so my hands look good.”
At other times though, it’s all too visible. “When I’m having a flare up in my knee, it swells up such that I really can’t pull a pant leg over. It swells up to the point where the skin can’t push out anymore.”
Still, Lisa says, she remains hopeful for the future because of all of the advances in treatment. “I’ve taken a lot of different medications over the years, because at some point, they stop working. So, the fact that there is a lot more to choose from, and that I haven’t hit the end of the line is really encouraging.”
It has occasionally been challenging to get an appointment with a rheumatologist. Recently, she was calling around to get an appointment with a new one and the earliest available was three months out. “That just tells me that that we need more rheumatologists or there needs to be some change.”
A promising future
为了加速这一变化，创造一个每个人都能在需要时预约到风湿病医生的未来，丽莎和她的丈夫李怀着节日的精神，给关节炎基金会送了一份非常慷慨的礼物。这是对其他支持者的一份礼物:加倍!
布洛姆夫妇的捐赠将有助于我们扩大风湿病学家的研究机会，重点关注最严重短缺的社区。他们希望这能激励其他人尽其所能，“支持这个组织，所以它也会支持你。””
Celebrating holiday wins
Living with arthritis can be a constant battle, and people like Lisa know that celebrating the small wins can be encouraging – especially at this time of year.
Since stress can exacerbate arthritis symptoms, a holiday win for the Blooms looks like quiet time at home, baking with their son. Inspired by watching the Great British Baking Show, they have challenged themselves recently to learn some elaborate dishes – ones that take shape over several days. Whether it’s a quiet evening of baking, a brisk hike or a getaway, they don’t take any of it for granted.
Arthritis is a life-altering disease for nearly 60 million Americans like Lisa. With a gift today, you can help conquer it.Learn moreand help us meet the challenge match offered by the Blooms!
Make aDonation. Change the future of arthritis.