Felecia Causey

Photography: Felecia Causey Hi. My name is Darial Smith. I guess my lupus would start the summer of 2014. I remember it just like it was yesterday. I was at cheer camp with my high school squad. We were on the campus of Auburn University going to the campus shop to get a snack before bed. When suddenly both of my knees went completely out. I fell and my teammates helped me get back to the dorm where we were staying for camp. When I returned home to Montgomery my mom decided that we needed to see a doctor. The first doctor told us my joints were aching because of cheer and that I was a natural growing teenager whose bones are growing faster than my body. At that point me and my mom decided to get a second opinion. The blood work was sent off by my old pediatrician and the results came back that I had been diagnosed with Lupus and Crippling Arthritis and they wanted to start chemotherapy immediately. For a moment, my world stopped, and I could see my mom get weak, my dad is full of anger

  Tell my readers about yourself: I was born in Pasadena, TX on April 18, 1957.  I have two brothers, one older with straight arms and one younger with arms like mine.  I was married (divorced now and he is deceased) and have a son and three grandkids with one on the way.  I prayed every single day that they would have straight arms and God does answer prayers.   My parents are now both deceased.    I was born with clubbed arms absent radius. That means the radius (bone) that holds the arm straight is missing.  When I was 5 weeks old I had my first surgery at Shriners Crippled Children's Hospital.  A skin graft (taking skin from one place (buttocks) and placing it in another (the crook of my arms) was performed .  The surgeries continued until I was ten.  The Drs. had tried several times to shave the wrist bone and insert a stainless steel rod and leave it for six weeks.  As soon as the rod was removed they would fall back.  The Drs. said there was nothing else they could do, but f