Celena Adams-Locke is proud of her service.
It was more than three decades ago that she got her parents’ permission to sign up for the military at 17, a dream come true for a girl who wanted to serve just like her father.
She imagined a lifetime of service, with dreams of retiring with the Army. As one of the few female African Americans with the prestigious 10th Mountain Division, she took special pride in beating the boys during grueling marches.
“When you’re running with 12 men and I’m the only female, I was like ‘OK, let’s do it!’” she recalled.
Now 47, Adams-Locke does not run much any more. In fact, most physical activity for her is difficult now.
The military gave her a lot: a career, an education and a sense of duty. But it also gave her arthritis, a disease that inflames joint tissues and makes it hard to move muscles. Cartilage, the tissue that covers the ends of bones and allows free movement, breaks down, eventually resulting in joint failure.
She first noticed a sharp pain in her knees back in the 1990s, when she was stationed at Fort Drum in New York following Operation Desert Storm. It was a physically demanding post, with her battalion often required to complete six-mile road marches on uneven terrain while carrying 45 pounds of equipment.
Treatment kept her from the physical training, but brought scorn from commanding officers.
“It’s sort of shunned upon when you keep going to the doctor in the military. They kinda make you feel a little bad,” Adams-Locke said as she tried to figure out what was wrong with her knees.
“It got to the point where it was hard for me to get out of bed,” she said.
That was when she knew she had to walk away from the Army.
There’s no one treatment for arthritis. Adams-Locke takes a variety of pain-treatment drugs including Tramadol to combat her disability. The dosage changes depending on the day and her level of pain.
“I went from taking nothing to taking all this medication I’m taking now. I’m worried it’s causing problems with my liver and I don’t know what it does to me in the long run,” she said.
1 in 3 veterans has arthritis
This is the reality for thousands of veterans like Adams-Locke who live with some form of arthritis. While one in four Americans have arthritis, one in three veterans are affected by this preventable disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“If you look at health-related reasons for active duty honorable discharge, arthritis is second behind combat-related injuries. It’s a big deal,” said Dr. Kelli Allen, associate director of the Center for Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation at the Durham Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Richard Loeser, director of the Thurston Arthritis Research Center at the University of North Carolina, has spent nearly three decades studying the disease and is developing new methods to treat it, as well as working to raise awareness.
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“Lots of people in the past considered it a wear-and-tear disease, like a car tire that gets worn down over time. But it’s clearly not that. It’s an active biological process in the joint, so we’ve been trying to understand it better by looking at those basic biological process that cause your joint tissues to break down,” he said.
The old wear-and-tear attitude is detrimental to treatment, Loeser said, because people see it as inevitable as opposed to preventable.
“A lot of people don’t know what type of arthritis they have, and they don’t know what they can do to treat it,” Loeser said.
The causes vary for arthritis, from genetics to diet, age and even gender. Female veterans may be more at risk for arthritis because of the loss of estrogen during menopause, Loeser said.
But veterans are at more risk to develop the disease because of the constant pressure on their joints. Occupational duties like through marching, running with heavy equipment and even jostling about in vehicles over rough terrain lend themselves to joint injuries that could lead to arthritis.
“Activities like jumping out of a helicopter or carrying a heavy pack can damage joints, but we don’t fully understand the impact of these different activities on future risk of arthritis,” Allen said.
A new duty
Adams-Locke had dreams of becoming an air assault instructor, but her arthritis prevented her from completing the physical requirements. After she medically retired from the Army in 2005, she went back to school to become a nurse.
She now has a new mission.
After earning her master’s degree in healthcare administration, Adams-Locke went to workfor the CDC as a public health advisor. She splits her time between her home in Georgia and UNC, helping others combat arthritis.
May is Arthritis Awareness Month and Adams-Locke is working the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance to raise awareness about the early signs of the disease and coping with pain. She talks to people online and provides them with the same encouragement she received from her family.
“When I’m talking to people in their 40s like me who don’t have anyone to take care of them, I feel that,” she said. “I don’t want to give them medical advice, but I tell them to stay strong.”
She’s met many other veterans with arthritis — even including some in her old unit who criticized her for receiving treatment years ago.
Despite her diagnosis, Adams-Locke has no regrets. Her service to country was worth it.
“Through life you’re going to go through ups and downs but, at the end of the day, that was just minor to what I was doing in the military and the people that I’ve met,” she said.
If you or a loved one is dealing with arthritis and in need of resources, contact the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance here.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arthritis is prevalent in the military. This Army veteran wants to help