Sylvia Elliott with osteoarthritis--possibly other issues to be determined writes:

I am a 47-year-old mother of eight and a National Board Certified Teacher. I teach in an inner city school in a deteriorating neighborhood with high poverty and high needs. I am a reading specialist, a trained Reading Recovery teacher. I love my job and am good at what I do.

After several years of "putting up" with pain in my knees, I sought out help 29 months ago and received the diagnosis of OA. Since then, I have underwent many, many treatments with most of the medical folks telling me that I was "too young" to have arthritis that is this debilitating. The school that I love and teach in is a converted junior high school with four floors--lots of stairs and no elevator...as are many of our district buildings. As many of the schools and districts in this country are experiencing, we are in the middle of a budget crisis and getting expensive building renovations (e.g. elevators) are out of the question. Our district meets the ADA by placing physically challenged folks in one of three elementary schools that are very accessible. These are newer buildings and do not serve the population that needs someone with my skill. I have had to give up a couple of jobs that I loved to be housed on the ground level floor this year--one of them being a literacy facilitator position in which I could mentor and assist other teachers in reading and writing instruction. I also either have to give up training opportunities or take risks and climb multiple flights of stairs for valuable trainings and meetings. I hesitate to complain because our students need every penny we can put forth for curriculum, services and materials and I'm afraid that being noisy about this will steal those needed services away from the kids who need them most.

Now, my arthritis has gotten to the point that it has been diagnosed and surgically treated in one of my feet. I had a total knee replacement 6 weeks ago in my left knee and will most likely have the same procedure in my right knee before this year is out. A month ago, my doctor diagnosed arthritis in one of my wrists...and it seems as if this is springing up all over.

I wish we knew more about ways to manage this, slow down the destruction, diagnosis and treatment. Physical therapy has been very beneficial for me--but has also been costly and time consuming. In our area, the available doctors are very overworked and difficult to get in to see because of so much need. Medications have been a blessing, but again, we have needed to do a lot of trial and error to find some that both work for me and do not give me unwanted side effects. Unfortunately, I am well aware that this is far from resolved in my case.

If I could wave a magic wand, it would do several things to help me and others like me to stay productive. First of all, education and research would need to be enhanced. It is important to realize that we do not have the answers to all of this...but I believe the answers are out there. It also would help to educate the general population about this condition. I am a reasonably intelligent woman (I have a Master's degree and about 60 hours of specialized study beyond that...), but put off having this checked out for a very long time--possibly early intervention could have reduced some of the symptoms and needs. I also have had to deal with some insulting and difficult persons--including one who told me to get rid of my crutches because "no one is buying it" and another who gave my boss a recommendation of someone to replace me with because she didn't think I could continue to work.

Another thing that is important is having enough health care providers--and health care for arthritis that is affordable. I am fortunate to have two insurance companies--and still find myself paying a lot of out of pocket expenses for medications, treatments, surgeries, therapy... I am sure that the senior population is struggling with this as are Medicaid patients. This is a travesty. This is very real pain that keeps people awake and prevents them from having the quality of life they deserve--then they are punished further by not being able to afford what little relief may be out there.

Finally, I think it is important to continue the work of the ADA and IDEA and create accessibility to all locations. This cannot be done at risk of expense to other necessary services and needs to be done because it is right. I really want to work with underprivileged kids and would hate to lose that opportunity because of my arthritis.

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