Help Kyla compete and 'Stop Childhood Arthritis'
Donation protected
My daughter Kyla has always loved gymnastics and although she is only 12, she has been a part of the Milton Springers Gymnastics club for over 10 years. Currently she is a Provincial gymnast placing in the top 10 for her level in previous years. She has had to fight very hard on various occasions to be able to stay in the sport. Her most recent fight came up this past year after 6 months of severe knee pain and swelling, along with sicknesses, and many many doctors visits, she was diagnosed with Oligoarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. This is a Rheumatoid condition which is a form of Childhood Arthritis that affects approximately 3 out of every 1000 children in Canada. The word Idiopathic means they don't know why the child has it or where it came from...
Here is a link to more information about Childhood Arthritis from the Canadian Arthritis Society:
https://arthritis.ca/about-arthritis/arthritis-types-(a-z)/types/childhood-arthritis
Kyla had an extremely difficult year of multiple doctor visits, xrays, MRIs, ultrasounds and blood tests all while not knowing what was going on with her body. She was misdiagnosed as having a subluxed patella and was put in a full leg brace for a number of weeks and used crutches to get around for many weeks as well. Not being able to walk for this long stretch and then being immobilized for more weeks meant her leg had significant muscle atrophy which required physiotherapy to walk and do activities properly again. She was out of the gym for over 3 full months and missed her sport and her friends terribly. She was not able to "tumble" or do "floor" at all for 7 months - this is a really long time to be out for a gymnast.
Pictures below are of Kyla in her floor routine at Provincials the previous year.
Kyla is now being treated at McMaster Children's Hospital for her condition. She has to take medication daily in hopes it will prevent her arthritis from flaring up again. We will still see the Pediatric Rhuematologist every few months and she will need regular blood work as well as eye exams to check for a condition called Uveitis (common in children with her form of Arthritis). Kyla also still has to have another MRI to investigate another area of concern in a few weeks.
Pic below of her making it one week in the full leg brace and crutches.
However, Kyla is one of the lucky ones. Right now her arthritis is under control and her fatigue that goes along with her condition is low enough that she has recently been able resume a normal gymnastics training schedule. She has worked very hard to regain the strength and skills she lost this year and she is starting now to feel a little more like her old self again after 9 months! She didn't get to compete at all last year and is looking forward to being able to compete again as soon as possible!
Some children with Juvenile Arthritis have to have injections regularly or take a drug that is very hard on them and makes them feel very sick. Kyla is fortunate that she has a medication that isn't causing side effects that she can take easily for now.
We are reaching out for help in getting her to her first competition of the season which will be in the Bahamas in December of this year! I feel that my daughter has been through so much and has shown such hard work and determination to get through the year and still persevere her passion that she deserves to get to this competition. So while raising awareness of this disease which effects more children than most of us realize, we are also trying to raise funds for her trip.
Our goal is to raise enough money to cover the cost of her flights, hotel, gymnastics competition fees, coaching fees and food costs for this trip (as well as my own costs as I will need to be traveling with her). Any money we raise above and beyond these costs will be donated directly to the "Stop Childhood Arthritis" Campaign which funds research in this area. One of the main topics currently being investigated with this Campaign is how to diagnose children faster. I feel this is of huge importance - my own daughter had to wait 6 months before she had her diagnoses and thus access to the right doctor and the right medicine to treat her properly, which was far far too long.
The link below is where we plan to donate all additional funds we receive above what is needed for her competition:
https://arthritis.ca/campaigns/stop-childhood-arthritis
Picture below of Kyla's knee during the phase of severe swelling - which lasted for 3 months, then reduced after she was immobilized, but returned again a month later, prompting the Sport Medicine Doctor we were seeing to send her to a Pediatric Rhuematologist (a doctor who specializes in various rhuematoid conditions in children).
Words from Kyla herself;
"I had just started grade 6 when this all started, and so far it was going pretty well. In gymnastics, I got a new coach and I really liked her. At the start of the year we thought everything was going to go fine and I would be able to move up a level, then in the fall my knee started to bother me but I didn’t think it was anything significant. It started to get swollen and we went to the doctor because I couldn’t do gymnastics anymore because it hurt too much. We went to the family doctor and she sent me to get xrays and an ultrasound. Both of those tests showed that I had something called an “effusion” in my knee, which basically means lots and lots of swelling, but no other injury. When we went to go get the results, they told us to get an MRI because they didn’t know why there was so much swelling. The MRI appointment was 2 months away and it felt like so long because I couldn’t go to the sport that I loved and I missed it so much. And I felt like a couch potato! Also school was hard because I couldn't participate in Phys-Ed. and not everyone seemed to understand why I was sitting out, but some friends were great and helped me get around and stayed with me in the office at recess breaks.
My pain and swelling was getting really bad so we finally decided to go to McMaster Children’s Hospital emergency. We saw a sports medicine doctor who looked at my knee, he said I had to go in a leg brace for 2-3 weeks and I could only take it off to shower and change. I had to do more x-rays that day and the doctor thought that I had subluxed my knee cap because it wasn’t in the right spot (in the end we learned that the swelling from the arthritis caused the kneecap to be pushed out of place). That is why he put me in the brace to keep my knee still. I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on my knee so I also had crutches and they weren’t fun because they hurt my shoulder and I had to use the elevator at school. When I got the leg brace, it was close to Christmas and I had to wear it over the Christmas holidays and even on Christmas day. For the holidays, my family went to the cottage, and there is a big hill to get up so my mom had to drag me in a sled up the hill to the door because it was deep snow which I couldn’t get through with crutches and a leg brace! (I never like climbing the hill even with 2 normal legs – so this was kinda fun!).
It was really difficult because I couldn’t tell my friends at school or gymnastics what was wrong because I didn’t even know what it was.
One thing that I really didn’t like about all this was that I had to get 3 rounds of blood work and I REALLY don’t like needles!
I am so happy to be able to be back at the gym regularly again and with a new group and coach I am looking forward to a fresh start."
We would really appreciate any donations you can provide to help get Kyla to Bahamas to finally compete again in December - big or small! We have to book flights and the hotel very soon and our coaching fees are due in August. We also hope you have learned a little bit about Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) while reading about Kyla's journey this year.
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our request!
-Sheryl and Kyla-
Here is a link to more information about Childhood Arthritis from the Canadian Arthritis Society:
https://arthritis.ca/about-arthritis/arthritis-types-(a-z)/types/childhood-arthritis
Kyla had an extremely difficult year of multiple doctor visits, xrays, MRIs, ultrasounds and blood tests all while not knowing what was going on with her body. She was misdiagnosed as having a subluxed patella and was put in a full leg brace for a number of weeks and used crutches to get around for many weeks as well. Not being able to walk for this long stretch and then being immobilized for more weeks meant her leg had significant muscle atrophy which required physiotherapy to walk and do activities properly again. She was out of the gym for over 3 full months and missed her sport and her friends terribly. She was not able to "tumble" or do "floor" at all for 7 months - this is a really long time to be out for a gymnast.
Pictures below are of Kyla in her floor routine at Provincials the previous year.
Kyla is now being treated at McMaster Children's Hospital for her condition. She has to take medication daily in hopes it will prevent her arthritis from flaring up again. We will still see the Pediatric Rhuematologist every few months and she will need regular blood work as well as eye exams to check for a condition called Uveitis (common in children with her form of Arthritis). Kyla also still has to have another MRI to investigate another area of concern in a few weeks.
Pic below of her making it one week in the full leg brace and crutches.
However, Kyla is one of the lucky ones. Right now her arthritis is under control and her fatigue that goes along with her condition is low enough that she has recently been able resume a normal gymnastics training schedule. She has worked very hard to regain the strength and skills she lost this year and she is starting now to feel a little more like her old self again after 9 months! She didn't get to compete at all last year and is looking forward to being able to compete again as soon as possible!
Some children with Juvenile Arthritis have to have injections regularly or take a drug that is very hard on them and makes them feel very sick. Kyla is fortunate that she has a medication that isn't causing side effects that she can take easily for now.
We are reaching out for help in getting her to her first competition of the season which will be in the Bahamas in December of this year! I feel that my daughter has been through so much and has shown such hard work and determination to get through the year and still persevere her passion that she deserves to get to this competition. So while raising awareness of this disease which effects more children than most of us realize, we are also trying to raise funds for her trip.
Our goal is to raise enough money to cover the cost of her flights, hotel, gymnastics competition fees, coaching fees and food costs for this trip (as well as my own costs as I will need to be traveling with her). Any money we raise above and beyond these costs will be donated directly to the "Stop Childhood Arthritis" Campaign which funds research in this area. One of the main topics currently being investigated with this Campaign is how to diagnose children faster. I feel this is of huge importance - my own daughter had to wait 6 months before she had her diagnoses and thus access to the right doctor and the right medicine to treat her properly, which was far far too long.
The link below is where we plan to donate all additional funds we receive above what is needed for her competition:
https://arthritis.ca/campaigns/stop-childhood-arthritis
Picture below of Kyla's knee during the phase of severe swelling - which lasted for 3 months, then reduced after she was immobilized, but returned again a month later, prompting the Sport Medicine Doctor we were seeing to send her to a Pediatric Rhuematologist (a doctor who specializes in various rhuematoid conditions in children).
Words from Kyla herself;
"I had just started grade 6 when this all started, and so far it was going pretty well. In gymnastics, I got a new coach and I really liked her. At the start of the year we thought everything was going to go fine and I would be able to move up a level, then in the fall my knee started to bother me but I didn’t think it was anything significant. It started to get swollen and we went to the doctor because I couldn’t do gymnastics anymore because it hurt too much. We went to the family doctor and she sent me to get xrays and an ultrasound. Both of those tests showed that I had something called an “effusion” in my knee, which basically means lots and lots of swelling, but no other injury. When we went to go get the results, they told us to get an MRI because they didn’t know why there was so much swelling. The MRI appointment was 2 months away and it felt like so long because I couldn’t go to the sport that I loved and I missed it so much. And I felt like a couch potato! Also school was hard because I couldn't participate in Phys-Ed. and not everyone seemed to understand why I was sitting out, but some friends were great and helped me get around and stayed with me in the office at recess breaks.
My pain and swelling was getting really bad so we finally decided to go to McMaster Children’s Hospital emergency. We saw a sports medicine doctor who looked at my knee, he said I had to go in a leg brace for 2-3 weeks and I could only take it off to shower and change. I had to do more x-rays that day and the doctor thought that I had subluxed my knee cap because it wasn’t in the right spot (in the end we learned that the swelling from the arthritis caused the kneecap to be pushed out of place). That is why he put me in the brace to keep my knee still. I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on my knee so I also had crutches and they weren’t fun because they hurt my shoulder and I had to use the elevator at school. When I got the leg brace, it was close to Christmas and I had to wear it over the Christmas holidays and even on Christmas day. For the holidays, my family went to the cottage, and there is a big hill to get up so my mom had to drag me in a sled up the hill to the door because it was deep snow which I couldn’t get through with crutches and a leg brace! (I never like climbing the hill even with 2 normal legs – so this was kinda fun!).
It was really difficult because I couldn’t tell my friends at school or gymnastics what was wrong because I didn’t even know what it was.
One thing that I really didn’t like about all this was that I had to get 3 rounds of blood work and I REALLY don’t like needles!
I am so happy to be able to be back at the gym regularly again and with a new group and coach I am looking forward to a fresh start."
We would really appreciate any donations you can provide to help get Kyla to Bahamas to finally compete again in December - big or small! We have to book flights and the hotel very soon and our coaching fees are due in August. We also hope you have learned a little bit about Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) while reading about Kyla's journey this year.
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our request!
-Sheryl and Kyla-
Organizer
Sheryl Ross
Organizer
Milton, ON