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A day in the life of Greg………

The alarm goes of at 6am and I know that I have to get up in a minute but I just lie there.  It’s not that I don’t want to get up, it’s that I can’t.  You see, I’ve been asleep for about eight hours and I’m all seized up, so as usual I’ll wait until my mum and dad come in to help.  One supports my legs whilst the other supports my back and neck.  Gradually, they position me so I’m sat on the edge of the bed.  Their next step is to put my socks on followed by my trousers. After about twenty minutes of discomfort and pain it’s time to visit the bathroom.  With this done I’m ready to finish getting dressed, shirts no problem but the tie beats me yet again, but as usual, dad’s to the rescue.  It’s now around 7am and breakfast is ready, I’m already starting to loosen up and with thirty minutes of exercises to do I’ll be ready to walk to the bus stop to catch the 8.15am to school.  My parents always say they’ll give me a lift but I want to do it myself as I can catch up with friends and it also gives me my independence.

School starts with Maths, English or one of the other many subjects you have to learn, these I don’t mind, I’m on equal terms with everyone else.  The problem starts when break comes.  Everybody runs for the playing field to play various games, football being the most popular, by the time I get there teams have been chosen and I’m left out.  I know I’m not that good and I know I shouldn’t play anyway, but I want to be part of something, instead I feel isolated and it’s not a nice feeling.

Break over and it’s back to lessons.  It’s P.E, rugby, football, athletics or maybe circuit training, well that’s what everyone else will do, but not me.  Because of my condition I’m exempt from contact sports and I’m told I can go to the library to study, (Oh what fun!)  Oh no, I’ve just spotted the district nurse walking past the window; I know why she’s here.  It’s time for my steroid injection, which means a quick trip to the teachers’ office, trousers down, needle in my… (Well you can guess!)  Sign a form and then back to class.  As you can probably imagine I get quite a bit of stick when I return as this is a regular occurrence.  I’m off to the library now where I decide to check out what sports are available to me; swimming club, canoeing, archery or maybe chess club.  None of these really appealed to me but then I spotted fencing.  Could it be possible that I would be allowed to do this, I will have to investigate further.

After about two weeks I visited my doctor and he gave me the go-ahead.  The fencing club was after school so I signed up and went along.  When I arrived I was amazed to see about a dozen young people of varying ages waging war on each other, could I really do this, yeah what the heck.  Then came the deciding factor, an instructor approached and took their mask off, to my astonishment it was my physics teacher and I didn’t particularly like her, this could be my chance to get her back for my bad grades she had given me.

Two years of hard work, bruises, sheer determination and the pleasure of whacking the physics teacher over the head, resulted in me coming second in the south west of England under 14’s sabre competition.  This goes to show that if you’re given the opportunity to do something and you have the willpower and determination you can succeed.

During those years I made a lot of new friends and as I did I decided that instead of trying to hide the fact that I had rheumatoid arthritis I would tell them.  This was due to the fact that I had come to terms with it and accepted it.  This made it easier for me to open up to others and if they asked questions, I would be able to answer them and I think they appreciated this.  They were suddenly more informed and had a better understanding, and in turn this raised their awareness of how arthritis affected me.

Over the past 10 years I have been in and out of hospital far too many times to remember, but surgery has left its scars as a reminder.  I won’t go into what I’ve had done but lets just say that I’m captain of a pool team and I’m known on the pool website as Metal Mickey.

Bringing you right up to date, I’m now 39 and have a wonderful daughter of 9 years of age who keeps me young and active.

I’ve been involved with Arthritis Care for about 10 years, working as an information worker and as a trainer.  I enjoy my life, and I don’t let myself get down.  If I hadn’t had arthritis, yes my life would have been different, especially without the pain, but would I have been so determined to achieve what I’ve done, who knows?

Written by Greg

For more information about Arthritis Care, the charity that empowers people with arthritis, have a look at their website www. arthritiscare.org.uk

You can also call the Arthritis Care free confidential helpline on 0808 800 4050

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