“Keep out of reach of children” is the warning plastered to the box of medicine I first took as a teen. Juvenile Arthritis can be a disease of ironies. The medicine that helped to transform the quality of my life reminded me that I was not supposed to be near it.
I made this book to mark what is hopefully the conclusion of my years of taking injectable medication. As one who loves to collect data, I kept meticulous records of my experience. The book’s format mirrors the laminated instructions that I was given when I began taking Humira. I was told that I would only need it for 6 months, but that repeated itself. The book has 12 pages representing what turned into 12 6-month periods. One side utilizes the visual language of the medicine packaging while the other lists the dates for all 180 injections over the course of 6 years. The book is not only a medical and personal record, but a recognition of all that I have been through, a way of acknowledging my “invisible” illness.
