With Pain, Some Gains
Nine-Year-Old Seeks Help for the 300,000 Kids With Arthritis
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Eric Terry is like any other fourth-grader -- except when he's not. Yes, he plays basketball and baseball, loves pizza (with sausage) and longs for a dog. But he also has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which leaves his joints so swollen and painful at times that he lies in bed and cries.
Eric's parents were stunned when his condition was diagnosed at age 2. "Like many people, I thought: Kids don't get arthritis," father Reggie Terry says.
But they do. About 300,000 kids in the United States have arthritis (pronounced are-THRITE-iss). Eric, who is 9 and lives in Woodbridge, has become a spokesman for them, going with his parents to Capitol Hill recently to urge lawmakers to fund research aimed at finding a cure.
Juvenile arthritis is "very difficult to diagnose," says Patience White, a physician who works for the Arthritis Foundation. "A doctor has to make sure the symptom the young person is having isn't related to other things."
Sharp Pain, Sharper Comments
When Eric's immune system goes haywire -- attacking the tissue that lines his joints -- he feels pain in his knees, ankles, elbows, neck and back. "It hurts really bad," he says. The stiffness even changes the way he walks.
To beat the disease, a person needs to stay active.
"In basketball, I score a lot of points. In baseball, I can hit hard and am good at catching. I like golf, too," Eric says. He is able to play sports in part because of medication that keeps his joints mobile and his muscles strong.
Eric has learned to handle stares and the occasional mean comment at school. "It's real hurtful and stuff because there's not anything I can do about it," he says. If someone gives him a hard time, "I'm like, 'Hey, I have arthritis. I know you don't know what that means, but if you had it you'd probably cry.' "
The Arthritis Foundation helped the Terrys understand and manage his condition. Eric and his brothers -- Tony, 17, and Chris, 14 -- go on fundraising walks, and Eric has become a forceful spokesman for people with the disease.
