Meet Ethan.  Ethan is 10 years old.  He is in 5th Grade. Ethan loves fast cars, playing video games, Harry Potter, his family and friends. 

In April 2015, Ethan was diagnosed with SJIA (Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis).  Did you know that kids can get arthritis too? 

Here is Ethan's Story...

I attended Tae Kwon Do after school weekly. On Wednesday January 7, 2015  I slipped and fell on a block. When my mom picked me up it just hurt a little. I put ice on it. It wasn't swollen or bruised. I was able to walk on it. 

The next few days, my knee started to hurt more and more.  By Sunday morning, my knee was super swollen and very bruised.  My mom took me to the ER.  While at the ER, they put me in a brace and gave me crutches to use.  They told me I need to go see a specialist. 

The next day my mom took me to the specialist.  A week later, I had my MRI done.  Two days later, I went back to the specialist.  I tore my LCL in my left knee.  They put my leg in a cast from my hip to my toes.  I picked the color red. 

I had to wear the cast for 3 whole weeks. While I had my cast on, I didn't feel well. I started getting fevers at night. My mom let the doctor know and monitored me closely. When it was time to have my cast removed, they used a little saw to cut it off. When they removed it, my knee did not look good. It was still very swollen, bruised and now warm and bright red. The doctor was concerned and told us to go to the hospital. So my mom took me to the ER.

We had no idea what to expect.  When we got to the ER, they checked me in and then started running all kinds of tests.  I had to have an IV, an xray and an ultra sound.  When we got the results the doctors said I needed to go into surgery that night.  They said I had an infection in my knee so they went in to flush and clean out my knee.  I was admitted that night into the hospital. 

While I was in the hospital they ran lots of tests and gave me really strong medicine through my IV.  I felt yucky and my knee really hurt from having surgery.  I stayed in the hospital for 5 days and then got released to go home.

Unfortunately I ended up back in the hospital 3 days later. This time it was not only my knee. My left knee, both ankles, right thumb and left elbow were very swollen. The doctors were confused. My mommy and daddy were confused as well. Again they ran a lot of tests and I had to take a lot of medicine. I stayed for 5 more days in the hospital. We still didn't know what was wrong. Over the next couple months I was in and out of the hospital. I still was unable to put pressure on my left knee and sometimes even my ankles. I missed a lot of school because I didn't feel good. But I still completed all my assignments and kept my grades up.