FollowLuck is a pretty nebulous term and one that is bandied about rather loosely. Take your average lottery winner, for example. The winner undoubtedly feels lucky and will likely attribute their gains to luck. But is winning the lottery really luck or just a statistical inevitability? After all, somebody has to win. Sometimes we consider ourselves lucky when we avoid minor misfortune, like getting home in the evening before an ice storm turns the roads into skating rinks. That sounds more like coincidence, good timing or good planning.
Maybe luck is none of those things. Then again, maybe it’s a combination of all those thoughts, feelings, perceived blessings and more. Maybe, as the cantankerous and brooding Stanley Kowalski growls in A Streetcar Named Desire, “Luck is believing you’re lucky.” The Tennessee Williams character is hardly the first place we’d think to look for providential advice, but the boozy beau presents us with something prescient here.
Kristina Frodsham’s sons Colten and Landen, ages 11 and 9, respectively, both have juvenile arthritis. You read that correctly. They are preteens and have arthritis. The disease affects Colten’s knees and ankles. For Landen, arthritis has targeted his hips. Both boys were diagnosed with post-streptococcal arthritis (PSA) in 2011, mere months apart. “Post-streptococcal arthritis is a systemic arthritis,” Kristina explains, “so it affects other areas of the body.” PSA can cause inflammation of the eyes and heart, for example. It’s a lot for a little kid—and a parent—to think about. And yet, Kristina says, “We’re really lucky. This type of juvenile arthritis isn’t as severe as some other types.”
Colten and Landen are just two of the approximately 3,500 youngsters in Oklahoma who have some form of juvenile arthritis. The brothers are the co-youth honorees for this year’s Walk to Cure Arthritis, one of the signature fundraising events for the Arthritis Foundation. Overall, some 800,000 Oklahomans and about 1 in 5 adults nationwide suffer from one of the 100 forms of the disease. Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in the United States and the top reason for medical discharge from the military. Some forms of the disease are fatal, a fact that is often overlooked because most people with arthritis look perfectly fine.
Kristina Frodsham understands the frustration. “There’s not a lot of information out there,” she says. For people who have historically thought of arthritis as a disease that only affects the elderly, juvenile arthritis is practically inconceivable. For the Frodshams, educating people about the disease comes with the territory. But again, Kristina considers herself lucky. “Schools, coaches, teachers—everyone has been great,” she says.
The Frodshams will join hundreds of other families at the Walk to Cure Arthritis on May 16 to raise money and awareness. Nationwide, the walks aim to raise about $9 million. While conventional wisdom suggests that staying off your feet would be the best way to avoid arthritic flare-ups, the opposite is true. For Colten and Landen, “We try to keep them active,” says Kristina. “The best thing to do is keep them moving.” Colten even played his first season of tackle football last year. “We don’t want them to use [juvenile arthritis]as an excuse not to do things,” says Kristina.
Ingraining an active lifestyle now will benefit the boys as they get older. “We’ve been told they’ll have arthritis when they get older because their joints are already weakened,” explains Kristina. “It may be on and off or it might go into remission until their ‘golden years,’” she continues.
For now, Landen’s juvenile arthritis has been in remission since 2013. Colten has not had any flare-ups for a while, so the family is hoping for a diagnosis of remission the next time they visit their rheumatologist. “There are a lot of doctor appointments,” Kristina relates. They travel from their home in Ardmore to the Shriner’s Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, to see a pediatric rheumatologist. As the flare-ups have decreased and the disease moves toward remission, visits to the eye doctor and cardiologist have become less frequent.
In the United States alone, over 53 million people live with some form of arthritis. It is likely that you know someone—or several people—who suffer silently with one of the many debilitating forms of the disease. As the Arthritis Foundation continues to raise money for a cure, more effective treatment options continue to emerge. Realizing a better future for arthritis patients of all ages might not be luck as we defined it here. Whatever it is, it will be welcomed with open arms.
Written by Sean Becker
