Like any other 16 year old, it's hard to keep up with David Washington Jr. Whether it's playing basketball or hanging out with his friends, he was active and seemingly healthy until last April when his mother says he started having headaches – really bad headaches.
What You Need To Know
- David Washington Jr. has Neuro-Behcet’s disease
- A pediatric rheumatologist explains what the disease is
“These headaches would be so bad that he would be down for days,” Alexandria Woods said. “Vomiting, can’t lift his head up off the pillow.”
Woods says doctors first thought it was being caused by a stomach virus, but things kept getting worse.
“He was drooling out of his mouth and nose,” she said. “His arms would just fall. I would pick them up and they would fall. He wasn’t walking straight. He couldn’t remember that he missed the bus.”
Finally Washington went into the ICU at All Children's Hospital where he was diagnosed with Neuro-Behcet’s disease, an inflammation of the blood vessels that causes blood clots and lesions.
“In Behcet’s, typically the most common organs that we see involved are the mouth, the skin, joints. eyes, G.I. tract and the brain.”, said pediatric rheumatologist Dr. Amanda Schlefnan.
If you've never heard of it before, it's not surprising. In the United States there are no more than five cases of Bechet’s for every 100,000 people and children make up only 2% of those cases.
“With most autoimmune, if not all autoimmune diseases and auto inflammatory conditions, we can't cure it,” explained Schlefnan. “However, the goal is to put it into a state of remission.”
And that takes time, time Washington has to spend away from school and his basketball team, although they've taken time to visit him. His mother also has to spend time away from work as a nurse's assistant which makes keeping up with all the hospital bills and all the other regular bills difficult, but mother and son say it's more than worth it.
“I can see myself getting better," Washington said.
“Better isn’t the word," his mother replied. “If I could use another word to say better, it would be that because he couldn’t walk.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up by the family.