Like many 13 year olds Bryce Fisher loves adventure, playing sports and being active. But that’s changing.
A year and a half ago Bryce was jumping on the trampoline with his brothers when he landed wrong.
“He came to me and I was like Bryce just suck it up and I kind of just blew it off and a month later he is still hurting,” explained Carolyn Anderson, Bryce’s
mom.
They eventually took Bryce to the doctor who preformed an x-ray, but the couldn't find anything wrong.
“He couldn’t run, he count play with his friends like he used to because his back hurt all of the time and pretty soon he developed a limp,” said Anderson.
Knowing something wasn’t right they went back to the doctors where they did months worth of tests, until one day they noticed what looked like a compression fracture in Bryce’s back.
“I’ll never forget that day November first when we went in of last year and they said it’s crushed here, there is no chance it is going to hurt the spinal chord so that’s good but we are not really worried about that so much as we are worried about these white spots on the vertebrae above and below it,” said Anderson.
Eventually it was determined that Bryce has an extremely rare condition.
“Chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis,” said Bryce.
It’s more commonly called CRMO, a condition that only effects one in a million children. Bryce’s white blood cells attack his healthy bones.
“It shortens them and eats away at them,” said Bryce.
Now Bryce is severely limited in his abilities. He isn’t allowed to play like a normal 13 year old, and his immune system is compromised. What could be a quick sickness for some kids can actually hospitalize Bryce so he misses school a lot and Is isolated.
“They have certain medications that seems to work for the most part but they don’t have a cure,“ said Anderson.
But through it all Bryce is keeping a positive attitude.
“I still find the good stuff like I can still draw and I can swim which I am doing,” said Bryce.
To help keep busy Bryce has started a Youtube channel to blog his journey and let other kids know who are also fighting rare conditions that the are not alone.
“I want to help in some way. and I feel like I am doing my part.” Said Bryce.
