For those of you who have or know someone with JRA please know that the Shriners Hospitals will help. I'm not exactly sure how they help or what they do to help, but I know they will. My son was born with bilateral club feet and have been a regular at the local Shriners. I saw that they offer assistance for children who have JRA. I believe the child has to be under the age of 18 to start but the will take care of you until 21. Not for sure on this but I believe this is what I've heard. If you are near a Shriners, it may be helpful to check it out!
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What great info Celena. Shriners do amazing work with children. Our closest one is down near Chicago. Grammaskittles ~
If it isn't too far, I think it would be worth the investigation! Even call them first and get some questions answered over the phone! With gas prices totally outrageous, I use the phone way more before leaving! That has saved me a few gallons!
I read about this on a Parents board. The family writing about it would have to travel to either a ped rheum, or Shriners, and they were debating what to do. Shriners would be free, but because the doctors volunteer (or are paid by Shriners to visit, something like that), she said they would not see the same doctor each time and that was a concern.
It sounded like ped rheums took turns rotating in, so it also sounds like you would have to be in metro area, because there are not many ped rheums. Maybe they use adult rheums who will see kids, too? That would be okay for a young teen, but I wouldn't recommend it for a very young child (we tried...). I don't know anything about ped rheums, so I'm not any help on that area. As for Shriners, I am very familiar with how they work, or atleast the one that we frequent. At ours, there are a couple doctors who work certain days. For instance the doctor who is my sons "primary" doctor there only works on Tuesdays. So to make sure we see him we schedule our appointments on Tuesdays. Another doctor that I don't care for much works on Wednesdays. So I make sure not to make the appointment for that day. The schedulers don't mind changing the dates, just tell them it doesn't work out for you. But like I said this is how ours works and I'm not sure about the other Shriner Hospitals. I would call them instead of taking someone elses word on it. I'm a smidge on the skeptic side and like to find out some things on my own.
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