Molly Dushnicky has never really known a life without arthritis. However, as she points out, that has never slowed her down and is part of what drives her to help others.

Diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) when she was 18 months old, Ms. Dushnicky is currently in her first year of studies at the School of Medicine at Queen’s University. Her end goal: to become a pediatric rheumatologist.

The reason is simple. There have been many people who have helped her along the way. She simply wants to give back.

“I don’t think I would be where I am and in the condition I am if I didn’t have such an absolutely fantastic team, and I really mean team, of health care professionals as I was growing up,” the Thunder Bay native says. “It sounds really corny but I do really want to give back.”

A diagnosis like the one she received all those years ago is a difficult one, particularly for the parents, she explains. For the child it is a new reality, a life with periods of excruciating joint pain and swelling but also years where they can be primarily pain free. However, JIA takes its toll, on the sufferer and loved ones alike.

Part of it is coming to grips with the fact that you are different from your peers, something Ms. Dushnicky admits she struggled with through her elementary and school years. But with support, she made it through, and volunteers with the Arthritis Society.

“It’s so inspiring to see someone like Molly, who has faced the challenge of arthritis for most of her life, committing herself to serving this community as a career,” says Joanne Simons, executive director, The Arthritis Society, Ontario Division. “Molly is an active supporter of The Arthritis Society and her enthusiasm and dedication are unwavering.”

Having lived with JIA will also help her when she achieves her “dream goal”. 

“You do really need a lot of support. My family is fantastic so I have a lot of support with them. But anyone going through a chronic illness needs that mental and emotional support and it has to come from everybody – from your physician, from the nurses, your family,” she says. “It makes a huge difference to know that people are there to listen to you so I think that having this experience in my life will make it hopefully a little bit easier for me to be that support for my patients in the future. I think it’s the case that it’s easier to help someone when you understand what they’re going through. Everyone’s situation is different so you are never going to fully understand but a little bit helps.”

After being diagnosed with JIA, Ms. Dushnicky was put on a treatment of low-dose methotrexate, a chemotherapy drug that also acts as an anti-inflammatory. However, it came at a cost as the drug also shuts down the immune system and made her feel generally unwell, much as a chemotherapy patient would. 

She also was required to wear splints on her hands and legs which made her stand out when she first went to school. Fortunately here physiotherapist – one of those key members of her health team – came to her kindergarten class and explained her condition to her classmates. That little extra step helped break the barrier between Ms. Dushnicky and her classmates and provided a key early life lesson. 

She would do well at school and was a “super-active kid,” playing a number of sports with the exception of a few that were deemed a high risk for injury.

At the age of eight she would suffer a flare-up of her condition, affecting 42 joints. She would undergo six months of treatment in Toronto and then was good again until another flare-up six years later. A year later there was hope that the JIA had gone into remission but unfortunately that would not be the case and in her second year at Lakehead University the pain returned.

Like many teens she tried to ignore the condition but it got to a point where she couldn’t dress herself. She responded positively to treatment and went on to complete her undergraduate studies. She would then pursue a master’s degree at Queen’s where the condition returned. With a new rheumatologist she found out that her immune system had been so compromised by the methotrexate treatments over the years that she would no longer be able to take it. 

What ensued was an agonizing year-long wait for an alternative to be found. Again, she was unable to walk. She would rely on support from a friend who would drive her to the university and carry her up the stairs to her lab.

She was surprised that after all these years she was embarrassed by her condition. 

It was another valuable lesson, one that she shares with others suffering from JIA.

“It’s really about trying to understand yourself. I really do think that it helps the course of the disease as well if you are positive about it,” she says. “You have to know your limits. You have to understand ‘Okay, I need to stop right now,’ but you also have to be willing to push yourself at the same time. If you just give in to your diagnosis it is going to consume you. That’s the biggest thing that I tell parents and the kids, to just be aware of who you are and what you want and you’ll find a way to make it happen. It might not be the way that everybody else would do it but you’re still a perfectly capable human being."