Treatment for Juvenile Arthritis Helps Young Athlete Play Without Pain (Anjali Patwardhan, MD)

Jaxton Briceno, 11, has a twice-monthly routine: Prep the supplies, disinfect his skin and inject a medication into his upper thigh.

“That's why we call him ‘The Beast,’ because he is pretty strong,” said Jamie Briceno, Jaxton’s mom.

Jaxton says the shots are more than worth it, because they’ve helped him return to the soccer field two years after a scary diagnosis. In 2020, swollen, painful joints sent him to the hospital. He was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or JIA.