“I was diagnosed with JRA when I was ten after being evaluated for jaw pain and clicking. Through blood tests and scans, they essentially said my body was attacking itself, and the jaw joints were showing active inflammation,” she told Bored Panda via email.
“A few years later, at around age 16, jaw surgery was recommended as the inflammation was no longer active in my jaw, but I had stage 5 deterioration.”
Clara Ziegler shared details about her recovery process six months after undergoing double jaw surgery
“Essentially, they said it looked like the jaw of an 80-year-old.”
“After having these jaw issues for so many years, I knew the prognosis was that it would continue to get worse and continue receding until a point when it could require immediate surgery if function was lost.”
JRA is an autoimmune disease, which means that the body’s immune system attacks some of its own healthy cells and tissues. It causes joint swelling and stiffness, affecting one or more joints for at least six weeks in a child aged 16 or younger, according to.
Though children often outgrow JRA (also known as juvenile idiopathic arthritis), this disease can affect bone development and cause serious complications such as growth problems or joint damage.
Globally, approximately 3 million children and young adults to suffer from JRA.
Clara was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) at the age of ten, an autoimmune disease that caused severe deterioration of her jaw
Clara experienced a period of remission where her symptoms were reduced. However, the JRA later returned, causing her knee to swell and making it painful to perform everyday activities like walking and talking.
“[It] started presenting differently by causing my knee to swell like a balloon and [made] everyday activities like walking near impossible for a few days at a time. I took the approach of ignoring it for a while but ultimately decided to try an injectable medication to keep it at bay. It has been a miracle for me!
“I felt like it was starting to become painful almost daily doing normal activities like talking, and I didn’t want to continue feeling it every day.
“The timing in life felt right, too. Because it was such a major surgery, I never felt like there would be a ‘right time,’ but I felt stable in my life and decided that investing a few months in recovery would be worthwhile.”
“The prognosis was that it would continue to get worse and continue receding until a point when it could require immediate surgery if function was lost,” said the 29-year-old
Clara documented her healing journey on, sharing that, in the first week, she wasn’t allowed to do many of the activities that were part of her routine, such as sleeping in her own bed, chewing, and running—one of her favorite hobbies.
“The first few days were really difficult because my tongue was swollen so even swallowing water was really hard, and then, I had to try and get pills down to keep the pain controlled. I kept trying to tell the nurse in the hospital that my tongue was too big for my mouth, and she didn’t understand.
“The amount of drooling for the first few weeks was also really annoying to deal with. I went through way too many paper towels because anytime I somewhat looked down, there would just be drool.
“Something I thought would be worse was the 6-week liquid diet. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely not fun. There are only so many protein shake flavors to choose from, and they all started tasting bad, but it went by faster than I thought, and it made me re-appreciate food when I finally could chew again.”
