| Feature TheReview Wednesday, September 25,1991 — A5 by Valorie Lennox The Review The disease can strike suddenly. One day 12-year-old Carina Mack was playing outside in the snow — the next she was barely able to walk. Mother Norma Mack said her daughter spent two weeks in hos- pital, a month in therapy and will take medication for the rest of her life to control the disease. The disease? Arthritis. Arthritis is Canada’s most com- mon chronic disease, striking an estimated one in seven people. But on the Pauquachin Reserve, where Carina lives, community health worker Lois Jacks suspects up to a third of the 210 band members suffer from some form of arthnitis. Contrary to the popular image of arthritis as a disease of the elderly, many of the victims are young. Leona Mitchell was 18, a high school graduate and working full- time when she suffered her first arthnitic attack. Despite the disease, Mitchell worked for 17 years handling licensing for the liquor control board. She was determined to continue working. “When I used to go to work, sometimes I had to be carried from the car after work, the arthritis was so bad.” She was finally forced to stop working in 1986. Operations in 1987 to correct joint damage caused by arthritis were unsuc- cessful. Mitchell is now partially para- lyzed and confined to an electric wheelchair. “It’s limited quite a bit of activi- ties,” says Mitchell, who was once able to type SO words a minute and take shorthand at 100 words per minute. Now her hands are so twisted she can barely manipulate her wheelchair. “You really can’t do anything in a wheelchair,” she says, adding that she would like to work to benefit the band. But she never knows when or how the arthritis’ will strike. “T woke up one night last week and it just hurt to breathe,” she said. Band manager Lyle Henry says the early onslaught of arthritis among so many band members steals potential. “The sad thing is, it’s hitting HILDR {a Montes AND UP YOUNGSTERS CHECK OUT the hot tub in the Pauguachin Reserve health centre. The band installed the tub to help reserve members suffering from arthiitis. PRE-SCHOOL young people on our reserve.” He also suffers from arthritis, diagnosed when he was about 30 years old. At the time he was involved in athletics, soccer and hockey, for 12 to 15 hours a week. “I personally went through a depression. I pitied myself,” Henry said. “The only thing that helped me was the older people telling me to live one day at a time. Once you get over feeling sorry for yourself, you lear to appreciate the things you can do.” Henry is still able to work. “There are days when I’m fine at the office — then the next hour I can’t walk.” Chronic arthritis can limit the patient’s ability to keep a job. One reserve member, a teacher, was forced to stop working because the disease. “When arthritis flares up the patient can’t be sure he or she can get out of bed,” Jacks said. As community health worker for both the Pauquachin and Tsawout teserves, she feels the incidence and severity of arthritis is much higher on the Pauquachin Reserve. “Tt seems to be a lot worse on the Pauquachin Reserve as far as the degrees of it.” To help the many arthritis patients on the reserve, the band raised money to include a hot tub in the new health centre. The health centre was opened in July. Appropriately for arthritis month, the band plans to have the hot tub in use by the end of September. oe », Playmobil EN . CBee) Now in stock 655-7171 OPEN MON.-SAT. 9:30 - 5:30 SUNDAY noon - 4 p.m. 2496 BEACON AVE. “Once the equipment comes in, it will help a lot of people,” Mitchell said. “It gets to be too much to go from here to Victoria all the time.” Recognizing it is difficult for many arthritis patients to travel, the B.C. and Yukon Arthritis Society introduced the arthritis , self-management program in 1989. Conducted by volunteers, the 12-hour, six-week course teaches patients how to manage the disease so there is less pain, less depres- sion and less chance of disability. “Tf we can show people how to manage early on, we can prevent a DEBORAH GRAY CONDO RESALES TOWNHOUSES NEW PROJECTS Be one step ahead and get on my list for up to date info on these rare proper- | ties. Call DEBORAH GRAY NRS PENINSULA PROP. 652-5171 lot of damage,” said society Direc- tor of Social Work Services Patrick McGowan. McGowan noted the program has been especially beneficial in tural areas and on native reserves where other treatment may not be easily available. Although McGowan suspects the incidence of arthritis among First Nations people is the same as among any other ethnic group, there are some exceptions. Among the Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands one type of arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, occurs 20 times more frequently than among the general popula- tion. The disease is linked to a spe- cific gene, B-27, which occurs in 50 per cent of the Haida popula- tion, explained Dr. Christopher Atkins, a Victoria-based specialist in rheumatic diseases. “We think there’s a specific gene which is closely linked or identical with one of the genes which is a marker of self-identity, the same genes which cause rejec- tion of transplants,” Dr. Atkins explained. Atkins was involved in a 1978 to 1988 study on arthritis among the Nuu-Chah-Nuilth (Nootka) people of northermm Vancouver Island. The Nuu-Chah-Nulth patients had a high incidence of overlap- ping arthritic symptoms, which made diagnosis difficult, Atkins explained. He suspects there may be a higher frequency of total rheuma- tic diseases among the native pop- ulation. “Generally, there is a strong genetic component to most rheu- matic diseases,” Atkins said. Arthritis stealing potential from young victims Arthritis patients on the Pauqua- chin reserve don’t know the gene- tics, but they do know how many of their people have suffered from arthritis. Mitchell says her grandmother had arthritis and Mack said she developed arthritis as a child, just like her daughter Carina. “T worry about my younger girl,” Mack said. #4-2353 BEVAN AVE (Beside Capital Iron) | MONDAY, TUESDAY = & WEDNESDAY 655-3136 CANTERBURY YES! THERE IS ANOTHER: MEN'S STORE IN SIDNEY! Canterbury Plus Carries PREMIUM A agen MEN'S WEAR including Fashions by: * Tommy Hilfiger * Britches * Royal Robbins * Boston Traders COME IN TODAY! 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