Misterious illness

By the time I went to university, further left leg complications, required of me to use crutches, but instead of it being a case of “bad luck”, I found that I was in fact much more mobile than walking without them. I completed my B.A. en B.A. Honours degrees and a Diploma in Adult Education and for the next 10 years I again lived an active and healthy life.

Then suddenly early in 2000, I became mysteriously ill with high fevers, muscle spasms and digestive problems. After several tests they diagnosed that I a rare form of rheumatoid arthritis called Adult Onset Stills disease. The thing is, arthritis is known as a health symptom of an overactive immune system that attacks the joints of the body which results in inflamation in those joints. Since I still had severe digestive problems, I knew I had to try and find out what was triggering my immune system to go into overdrive.

By end 2000 a small wound opened on the scar where the bone tumour was removed when I was 12. The arthritis became worse and eventually I was diagmosed with chronic bone infection, or osteomyelitis, a side effect from the radiation I had as a child.. By 2001 my health situation had deteriorated to the extent that I had to use a wheelchair as an assistive device. Several attempts to treat the bone infection using intravenous antibiotics proved to be unsuccessful and I was informed that I should focus on “just managing my condition".