Seattle Childrens Hospital (Rheumatology Research Guild)

Did you know that kids get arthritis? If not, you are certainly not alone! Cowan, my 16 year old son, has always loved playing sports, including playing two years on a PGA Junior League team and currently on his High School Golf Team. A few months before he turned nine, while playing football, he began to have difficulty running. Soon after, he was diagnosed with Polyarticular Juvenile Arthritis, meaning he had swelling in five or more joints.

The process has been hard on Cowan. His treatment began with weekly injections of medicine to suppress his immune system and slow the swelling. He has shown unbelievable perseverance during this process, and while I won’t go too deep into the details, I want you to have an understanding of his journey.

If not for the amazing doctors, nurses and staff at Seattle Children’s Hospital, our journey would have been that much more difficult. They are an amazing resource and the research they do is getting us ever closer to helping kids like Cowan.

It has been crushing at times to watch Cowan go through this. As a father, it is heartbreaking, to not have answers, to feel helpless against something that is causing so much pain. I am SO proud of Cowan and how he has never complained, NOT. EVEN. ONCE. He is my inspiration and why I am playing in support of the Rheumatology Department at Seattle Children’s Hospital!

If you didn’t know that kids get arthritis soon, you definitely do now! Cowan, Travis and I ask that you join our team, support the research and donate in honor of all the kids who deal with Juvenile Arthritis every day! Someday soon our children won’t have to go through this!