Cobb County girl, 11, pushes through the pain of juvenile arthritis

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Siya Mogulla, who turns 12 later this month, is playing the violin, something that she could not do for years because of severe joint pain.

"My elbows, and maybe my waist, my knees, everywhere was hurting," Mogulla says. "Now, it's more managed, and it doesn't hurt in multiple different places like it used to."

For most of her young life, the Cobb County middle schooler has been living with juvenile arthritis, which made physically keeping up with her classmates hard.

"It was really frustrating because I just felt like I had a huge disadvantage," she says. "Like, sometimes I would play tag, and I would always be the first one to get caught, and that was not fun at all."

Of the 60 million Americans living with arthritis, about 300,000 are children or teenagers.

Mogulla was just four when she was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), which can cause joint pain, stiffness, swelling, warmth and loss of motion.

Her mother, Su Reddy, says she and Siya's father had noticed signs when Siya was still in preschool.

"When we'd go for a carnival or, like, shopping, she always had to say, 'Mommy, carry me,' or 'Daddy, carry me. My legs are hurting,'" Reddy remembers.

But the diagnosis of arthritis caught them off-guard.

"It was more than a surprise," Reddy says. "It was a shock. It was a shock."

Now, she says, they finally understand why their daughter was hurting.

Still, her mother says, finding a treatment that could stop the pain took years of trial and error.

"Nothing worked for her," Reddy says.

But with time, and new medication, Humira, Mogulla's symptoms improved.

In 2022, after a COVID-19 infection, she had a major flare up and her joints became visibly swollen and stiff.

They were back to square one, her mother says.

"She was limping, and she, she was in pain," Su Reddy remembers. "We had to go and see a doctor every two weeks."

With help from her rheumatologist at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, the sixth grader's symptoms are now back under control.

"I feel more confident about myself because my body is not really hurting anymore, and I can do everything else I want that I used to not be able to do," Mogulla says.

She attends Camp Acheaway, a summer camp for kids with juvenile arthritis, where she gets to meet kids facing the same challenges.

And, Mogulla will be the youngest honoree at the Atlanta Walk to End Arthritis in Dunwoody on May 4, 2024.

Siya Mogulla (Photo submitted by family)

Today she's able to enjoy her passions painlessly, like playing her violin and being involved in drama and theater.

Siya Mogulla says classmates sometimes ask her what it is like to have arthritis at 11.

"They are always wondering, like, how I got arthritis, because most of the time it's for, like, older people," she says. "I just tell them that, like, sometimes kids can get arthritis, too, and that it's not really a big deal if you know how to handle it."