Jaya-Lilas Payette used to manage her juvenile arthritis with medication but about a year ago, the drugs stopped being effective.
Payette’s arthritis had progressed to osteoarthritis and last fall, her routine X-rays showed her hip bones had deteriorated much faster than expected.
“We saw the bones of my hips were totally crushed together,” said Payette.
The 25-year-old used to work in a busy Montreal cafe, but the physical demands became overwhelming.
At the end of the day, she says she’d fall into bed from sheer exhaustion and pain.
“I wasn’t even able to make meals or do my chores because I really had to go
