O'Fallon girl heads arthritis walks

Emily Goldstein of O'Fallon, Mo., will be the honorary chair for two local Arthritis Walks in May. But, she's hoping to pass a vital health milestone before that.

Five-year-old Emily has a form of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis that affects her knees.

But, the disease has been in a "medically-induced" remission for the several months. Sometime in March, Emily will be taken off her last medication to see if the remission will continue naturally.

Emily is the oldest of three children of Barry and Melaine Goldstein. There's no arthritis in the background of either parent's families

Mrs. Goldstein said the flare-up of Emily's arthritis came when the family was living in Florida. "One morning, Emily woke up and said she couldn't walk," she said.

The first day, there weren't any physical signs. But, the next day, Ms. Goldstein said, "One of Emily's knees was three-times the size of the other."

After lots of visits to doctors, Emily was diagnosed with the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Eventually, the disease affected both knees but no other joints.

Emily has been on different medications since March, 2003. Some medicines are quite powerful. One side effect is a suppression of Emily's immune system.

That meant other disease "bugs" can make Emily sick with infections, colds and the like.

But, her arthritis has been getting better. And she's also having better luck avoiding other illnesses. Mrs. Goldstein said, "She's only been sick once since August."

Emily is down to one type of medication and symptoms of her arthritis are going away.

She's back to riding her bike, playing outdoors and going to pre-school twice a week.

And, she said, "I play with my Barbies, play with cars and bake cookies with my mommy." Her favorite cookies are chocolate-chip.

Since moving to St. Louis, the Goldstein family has been active in the Eastern Missouri Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. They helped with several fund-raising projects.

Foundation officials asked if Emily could serve as honorary chair of two Arthritis Walks to be held in May.

Mrs. Goldstein said the local foundation chapter "is quite special in our hearts."

Asked about her honorary chair position, Emily said, "I get to sing and talk. I also hope to walk a mile." Emily has already picked her song-the theme from the Shrek movies.

Emily said she doesn't expect her knees to act up during the walk. "Now, only my foot hurts when I walk too long," she said.

If she passes her remission anniversary in March, Emily said, "I get a special 'off-medicine' cake." Like with the cookies, the cake will be chocolate.

Emily is down to one dose of medicine each month. The medication is usually injected but Emily is using a form that she can drink. To mask the taste, Emily gets the medication mixed with apple juice.

Her pre-school classes are at the Goddard School in O'Fallon. She says she's learning to read and also to speak Spanish. The family plans to move to Chesterfield soon and Emily will go to kindergarten at a public school in west St. Louis County next fall.

Mrs. Goldstein is a native of St. Louis and attended the Parkway schools.

Emily and her family invite everyone to join in the two special Arthritis Walks in May.

The national Arthritis Foundation holds many local walks across the country during May.

The first one in the St. Louis area will be on Saturday, May 13, in Frontier Park in St. Peters, Mo.

A week later, the second walk will be in Forest Park on Saturday, May 20.

If you'd like to take part, you can call the Eastern Missouri Chapter office at (314) 991-9333. If you want to do the St. Peter's walk, ask for Janice Hensler. For the Forest Park walk, ask for Amy Shoenherr.

The walks will be either 5K or l-mile in distance. Each walk will be led by children or adults, like Emily, who have arthritis. The leaders get to wear special blue "hero" caps.

If you'd like to get involved in other aspects of the Arthritis Foundation's program, you also can call the Eastern Missouri Chapter office.

For comprehensive information about arthritis, view the national website at www.arthritis.org. You can get to the local website through the national site.