Kasey Grace Uschan - Kids Get Arthritis Too

Kasey Walks 3 Miles - Arthritis Walk 2010

2010-05-10T21:47:00.007-05:00

For the past three years, we've found ourselves pushing Kasey (now 5) and her friend in our double-sized jogger stroller, the "blue bus" as we call it, for about 95% of the Arthritis Walk. This year we proudly watched our little Kasey walk (and sometimes run) the entire three miles.

Motivated by two dogs, she had a leash in hand and a smile on her face as she conquered the three-mile Arthritis Walk.

Our main concern was would walking that distance affect her legs later that day or the next day. However, she hasn't shown any pain or discomfort. For now, we can cherish this moment, but in the world of arthritis, you never know what might spur a "flare up" that sets her back.

Nearly 50 people and six dogs walked with Kasey, and many more people stopped by at our post-walk party.

View Photos from the Walk

Supporters of Team Kasey helped raise about $4,000 for the Arthritis Foundation. This effort helped Team Kasey be the top fund raising team in the state of Wisconsin for the fourth straight year. The money raised is used to support medical research as well as special programs and education.

Let us extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who has supported Kasey, our family and this cause.

Team Kasey Walking for Arthritis

2010-03-28T09:32:00.006-06:00

Once again, we're rallying the troops to support the mission of the arthritis foundation, raise money and have fun by walking on May 8th in the 2010 Arthritis Walk.

View the 2009 Pictures

Each year Team Kasey raises thousands of dollars for the Arthritis Foundation which helps support educational and awareness programs and medical research. We greatly appreciate the awesome support from our extended families, close friends, neighbors and colleagues. This is an event that has great meaning to our family.

Kasey has had great success managing this disease over the past 12 months. At this time a year ago, we adjusted Kasey's medication and she had a flare up in her right knee. It swelled up to about twice the size of her other leg and required us to return to the normal medicine routine and place her leg in a night brace. It's a delicate balance keeping the minimal levels of weekly/daily medications and injections in Kasey without jeopardizing her health and her daily activities.

The Walk (1 mile or 3 mile) is on May 8th at 10am at the Sun Prairie Athletic Center (get details here). Please come out and support the team or simply make a donation. BTW, if you have a dog, you can bring it to the walk.

And yes. We're having a post-event walk gathering at the house... bring the kids and let's have some fun).

Heart of the Mission Award

2009-11-23T20:12:00.007-06:00

Wow! We've just been awarded the "Heart of the mission" award by the National Arthritis Foundation for our strong efforts towards the Arthritis Walk.

This award is presented to the development volunteer who, through fund raising events, has improved the lives of others through their unfaltering dedication for the mission of the arthritis foundation. We were recognized for our efforts at the Dane County Arthritis Walk last year... coming with a team of 100 people and raising $8,400 as well as our time on planning committees and soliciting corporate sponsors.

We were honored at the 2009 Volunteer Awards Luncheon in Atlanta, GA. It was a pretty nice event where they honored other volunteers. When we learned about winning the award, we didn't really understand how much our efforts meant to the Foundation. However, once we there, we received ongoing praise for our dedication from many leaders of the Arthritis Foundation. It was quite an honor.

Big thanks to all the Wisconsin Chapter folks (Judy Miyagawa and Judy Haugsland) for the nomination.

Check us out... That's us with Cecile Perich, Chair of the Arthritis Foundation's National Board of Directors and John Howard Klippel, M.D., the President and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation.

2009 Arthritis Walk - May 9th

2009-04-04T21:29:00.002-06:00

We hope you can join us in our efforts to support Kasey and the Arthritis Foundation.

It's been nearly two and a half years since Kasey was diagnosed with Arthritis. Since then she has had to relearn walking, received over eight different types of medication and has had nearly 200 needle pokes.

The good news... Kasey is pain free, taking fewer medications and living a normal life. She still receives weekly injections to help her manage her disease and requires routine blood draws to monitor the effects of the medicine in her body. The needle poking is never fun, but it's necessary to keep this disease under control.

I get asked many times, "will this eventually go away?"

Unfortunately not. It's just something we as a family have to manage. Right now she's doing great, but there's no guarantee she'll be pain free forever. We're very fortunate.

Last year we had 90 people walk with us and hundreds of supporters help raise nearly $8,500. We certainly appreciate everyones support and feel blessed to be surrounded by such caring and wonderful people.

Record Turnout for Team Kasey at 2008 Arthritis Walk

2008-06-03T21:11:00.007-05:00

Your support for Team Kasey helped raise over $8,415 in donations to the Arthritis Foundation--Over a thousand dollars more than in 2007! Hopefully, the combined contributions from our team and many teams across the nation will provide the necessary medical research to help our little girl and hundreds of thousands of those with arthritis be pain free.

When we thought that forty five people who joined us in 2007 was a lot, amazingly, 90 people and four dogs showed up to walk with Kasey. I had to count people in the team photo three times to get an accurate number.

Joining us were Deb and Chris' colleagues from St. Mary's and Omnipress, friends who drove down from the Twin Cities, a great bunch of neighbors, friends from daycare, a ton of relatives up from Janesville and even "Pop Pop" (Deb's father) flew in for the walk and celebration.

The day started with the walk, but festivities continued at our home including: kid jumpers, bocce ball, kick ball, tons a food, a huge fireworks display and we closed it down with live music and a campfire--I am not sure what time it was.

It's amazing to see so many people take time out of their day. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by such caring and fun people. Please enjoy photos from this great day and we hope for your support again next year.

Kasey to be face of 4th Annual Arthritis Walk

2008-05-11T11:48:00.004-05:00

"Rain, rain go away, come some back another day," 3-year-old Kasey Uschan chanted over and over again while swinging in her backyard on Thursday, May 1 as storm clouds moved covering the sky. Kasey, her older sister, Emma, 5, and mom, Deb, just returned to their home in Cottage Grove from an all-day trip to Monona's Dream Park...
Read complete article as written in the Sun Prairie Star - 5/7/08)

"Mommy, I want new legs"

2008-03-16T15:21:00.009-06:00

A good friend of mine and I took Kasey to the Mall the other day. I could tell Kasey was having a bad day. She has been clingy and wanted to be carried everywhere. She looked at me and said, "Mommy, I want new legs." How do you respond to something like that? It brought tears to our eyes... I am never certain if I am making the right decisions for her and that bothers me daily. Kasey’s Rheumatologist now has concerns about her liver function which will require continued tests and medication adjustments. The stress comes and goes but the pain of having a child with a chronic medical problem never leaves me. I wonder if she will ever know what it is like to not hurt. - Deb

2007 Arthritis Walk - Bringing Family & Friends Together

2007-05-26T15:02:00.006-05:00

THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the 2007 Arthritis Walk and/or made a financial contribution to the Arthritis Foundation. You made the day most special for our family. We never thought this was going to grow to what it did. However, now that it is over, we are touched to know how many great people we have surrounded ourselves with. Click on slides to view full screen.

Team Kasey raised over $7,200 and our total contributions:

Made up 28% of all donations in Madison
Ranked #1 team in Madison by more than $4,000
Were one of the top two donation leaders in the state

Over 45 friends and family joined Kasey at the Arthrtis Walk in Sun Prairie in 2007. Colleagues from St Mary's Hospital, Omnipress, relative from Janesville, St. Mary's day care staff, and other friends. We had an amazing day.

Health Update - May '07

2007-05-25T15:59:00.002-05:00

Kasey has been making remarkable progress over the past few months. She is getting good at walking although she is still a bit slow some days. Although she is now 2 years old, she has only about 3 good months of walking under her belt. Her balance is not quite there and she is tentative about falling. She does bounce around and tries to jump, but it is obvious that she has only been walking for 3-4 months.

The chronic inflammation in her right knee has increased growth in that leg by ½ inch greater than the left leg – This is causing her to be a bit off balance. In the next few weeks she will be getting a little lift that fits into her shoe that should help. There is talk that she may get another steroid injection in her right knee sometime in the future if therapy alone does not relieve the contracture in her knee.

She continues to have weekly physical therapy and occupational therapy and is now in warm water pool therapy to help with the contracture in her knee. Her rheumatologist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee (Dr. Judyann Olson) is very pleased with her progress.

Kasey is still down in weight (not even on the growth charts). Some days she just refuses to eat all day. It’s frustrating as you want you child to eat and she pushes it away.

She will continue to get her weekly injection of Methotrexate as well as her 3 other daily meds for now. That seems to be working well as she doesn’t seem to experience much pain and is acting like a two year old should.

Where It All Started... (Our Daughter Has Arthritis)

2007-04-08T15:02:00.003-05:00

Our daughter, Kasey Grace was diagnosed with severe polyarticular Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) at 15 months of age (Aug 2006). It has painfully affected many major joints of her body to the point of preventing her from walking for almost six months.

At 17 months of age, Kasey stopped walking and started to crawl on her forearms because of the extreme pain she had in her feet and legs. Her little body was so exhausted fighting this disease she often slept 16-20 hours a day. There was a period for six months during which time Kasey ate very little and lost a lot of weight. After dozens of trips to the Milwaukee Children’s Hospital for blood and physical testing, the doctors have her on oral medication twice a day and injections once a week.

"These doctor visits are not fun and she usually cries at each visit."

Since she started Methotrexate injections in December 2006 she has started to improve. She has a lot less pain. Kasey (who will be 2 on May 18th) is learning to walk for the second time. She's getting around pretty good, but it’s more like an 11-month old baby. Her right knee has a contracture causing mobility issues. Additionally, since the right knee is constantly inflamed, her growth in that leg is faster than her left leg. She has begun aggressive rehab now that she is in less pain. Kasey participates in physical therapy(legs), Occupational therapy (wrists and hands), and aquatic therapy every week to get her strength and functioning back. We make frequent trips to many doctors and she gets frequent blood tests to ensure that she is continuing to improve.

Fortunately, Kasey is no different than other kids with the exception of her mobility. She has an unbelievable happy demeanor and unlike most kids, she actually listens.

Behind the scenes, dealing with insurance has been far from pleasure. Deb has spent on average 5-7 hours per week battling claims and trying to get approval for the numerous doctors, therapists, tests, etc that she needs. That hard work has finally gotten Kasey seeing great doctors and participating in the therapies she should have gotten months ago.

This has been very hard on our family. No one ever wants this to happen to their kid, but it happened to ours and there’s nothing we can do but be very committed to ensuring Kasey the proper medical attention she needs.

You support and prayers are welcome and encouraged.