jenna

Member since: 3/14/2008

About Me

My name is Jenna and I live in California with my son. I have had JRA since 1972. I was 4 years old when I was diagnosed. I am turning 40 this year. In 1986-1991 I had bi-lateral total hip and total knee replacements. I had been doing really well before that. The arthritis was not active. I continued to do really well after the surgeries, and my arthritis remained inactive. In 1999 I had my son, born healthy, and I had a very easy pregnancy. My son's father never participated in his life and I was a single mother from the day he was born. Since my family was on the east coast, I had no real help with my son other than a couple of friends. I can't say it was easy, but I would do it all over again if I had the choice. In 2003 I started having some flare-ups and finally in August 2003 I under went a revision to the left hip. It got infected. In October that same year they did a second revision to the left hip and that got infected too. about a week after that surgery, I ended up in ICU on life support. My body was shutting down and none of the doctors thought I would not make it. They asked my family to come and say goodbye to me. My son was not even four years old at the time. I survived that horrific ordeal only to go through a whole lot more. When I finally woke up and they took me off the life support, the doctors informed me that I had to remove my left hip completely. In November 2003, they removed the entire joint and placed just a rod in the femur. I stayed that way until late 2004 when at that time, they removed the rod too because the infection had not cleared up. I spent the rest of 2003-June 2005 on IV antibiotics and finally in June the doctors said it was okay to finally put my left hip back in. During pre-operative testing, they found out that I now had an infection in the right knee. I had some fantastic doctors in New York at Hospital for Joint Disease and NYU Hospital. Along with my Infectious Disease doctor here in Califronia they devised a plan to revise both my hips and knees. I had 5 surgeries in 2 and a half months, and after all that a 2" leg length discrepancy that I had not had before. In 2006 they did a 6th proceedure to lengthen my left leg one inch. Finally I was bale to walk again, however due to the fact that I had no hip for almost two years, I now still have a leg length discrepancy of 1" on my left leg. I have to put a full lift on every pair of shoes I buy. Due to the infection I need to be on antibiotics for the rest of my life in order to suppress any possibility of a recurring infection. Although my range of motion becomes more and more limited, I am still active. I have a full time career and I have my son.

My Profile

My Sign: Libra
My Age: 39
My Status: Single

Hobbies and Interests

Hobbies: Board games with my son, books and reading, shopping.
Interests: Spending time with my family, my son and friends. Movies, , traveling. Real estate.

Favorites

Music: Anything but heavy metal.
TV Show: Not to much of a TV watcher.
Movies: Comedies and Drama.
Books: Anything on the New York Times Best Seller list.
People: My parents, my son and my best friend!