Legacy

Josh Dear is like any other collegiate weightlifter. He practices beside his teammates. He tries to eat healthy and take care of his body. With his hands caked in white chalk and surrounded by coaches and comrades, he grips the coarse bar and squats up to 470 pounds. Josh Dear is like any other collegiate weightlifter — except he’s not. Dear suffers from Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, but he’s determined not to let it interfere with his life.

On the night of Dec. 31, 2001, most seventh graders were setting off Roman candles and playing with sparklers. Joshua Dear wasn’t one of those kids. He was sick at home with the flu for the third consecutive New Year’s.

“I got really sick … my fever spiked over 105 [degrees] … my body couldn’t beat the fever,” Dear said about the flu that acted as a catalyst to even more “bad luck.”

Unfortunately for Dear, things didn’t improve after the holiday season. In fact, the next few years of his life were filled with severe pain and numerous unanswered questions.

Dear first noticed changes in his joints. He was no longer able to pop them and they constantly felt stiff. He remembers waking up for school during those following months not feeling refreshed, but with excruciating joint pain in his back, lower neck, hands and feet. Things got so severe, that he spent most of eighth grade on crutches, and by high school he was no longer able to jog or run.

“It took me about two minutes to tie a shoe,” Dear said about how swollen and inflexible his fingers had become.

After years of increasing, mysterious pain, Dear’s family began to investigate the problem. He went to numerous doctors who performed dozens of tests — all of which came up with no answers. One doctor even accused Dear of being lazy and faking pain for attention.

“I spent three hours under a machine … had blood work [drawn]. It took the course of an entire day … I was just really frustrated because I knew something was wrong,” Dear said about the doctor who accused him of exaggerating.

Dear began to lose hope but found an answer during a routine trip to his dermatologist, Dr. Sam Tumminello.

“[Tumminello] said ‘Josh what’s wrong with your hand,’” Dear recalled, while showing me his arthritic fingers.

Dear remembered telling him that was “just how my hands looked.” But Tunmminello pointed out that Josh’s curved fingers could be a symptom of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and recommended specialist, Abraham Gedalia.

After 13 rounds of blood work and a myriad of tests, Gedalia confirmed Dear had JRA. He feared Dear would be in a wheelchair by age 17 and began to rigorously treat the autoimmune disease caused by the holiday flu.

Dear underwent chemotherapy and took numerous, sometimes risky radiation-related medications. But despite all the tests and therapy, Dear feels the most helpful treatment came not from a capsule or injection, but from God.

“Medicine gives us the ability to be healed, but a lot of people don’t think miraculous healing still happens,” Dear, who calls himself a “fairly religious person,” explained.

This belief, and the realization he was taking more pills than his grandparents, prompted him to stop taking all of his medications — except his chemo — and be healed by God via the prayers of his pastor and members of the congregation at his Pentecostal church.

“[They] brought me to the front of the church, all of the elders and the very religious men. The pastor and bishop anointed me with oil and anointed me with a prayer cloth,” Dear said about his healing at his Harrisonburg church.

Dear isn’t a stranger to miraculous healings. He recalled seeing a deaf ear healed and his nephew’s vision corrected. He also said the “cloth” used during the ceremony is to be carried around with the person as a symbol of faith. Dear kept his cloth in his wallet until this summer, when Laika, his young pit bull, ate it.

“In a way [I] laughed about. It’s just a symbol … I know what it stands for,” Dear said.

After being healed, Dear believes his pain decreased from “severe, to almost normal aches and pains.” He believes his faith helped in another facet of healing, giving him strength that no doctor foresaw.

During a boring day of physical education –— a course that JRA kept Dear from participating — he went into the weight room and noticed his peers lifting. They called him over, and after a moment’s hesitation, he accepted. Weighing in at 90 pounds, Dear put his worries aside and bench-pressed 70 pounds, nearly 80 percent of his body weight.

“Everyone else laughed … I was like ‘OK I’m going to make this better.’ And within two months, I more than doubled that,” Dear said.

He continued to secretly exercise and lift weights, while also attending his physical therapy sessions. Dear was feeling “better than ever,” and physical therapy tests confirmed that the range of motion in his joints increased by 50 percent. When Gedalia found out about the weightlifting, he warned Dear that lifting anything over 10 pounds could accelerate his JRA.

But Dear couldn’t be stopped.

He continued to improve and lift weights throughout high school and after two years, Gedalia was surprised that weightlifting helped control the progression of his JRA.

Dear, now an anthropology junior, has continued this hobby as a member of the Powerlifting Club at LSU.

Dear lights up when talking about his powerlifting “family.” He proudly displays pictures, explains inside jokes and describes the bond he and his teammates share. Though he has this support system and is confident in his ability, Dear knows he’s not “immune to pain.”

“[JRA] affects me in the technical senses, but I can follow all the rules a normal, healthy person would in competition … I just have to be a little more watchful with my joints … and take a lot of Aleve,” Dear said, cocking his eyebrows.

Dear’s powerlifting career didn’t start off the way he wanted. He finished last at one of his first competitions. But hard work and intense training helped him place first at the national competition in April while recovering from a JRA flare-up in his elbow.

This success gave Dear the chance to travel to Brazil earlier this month and compete in the world competition.

“It’s crazy … I’ve never been out of the country,” Dear said proudly.

Dear was nervous about competing against the world’s best weightlifters but feels he’s “training with the best team and coaches.”

“Josh has beat the odds not only overcoming a handicap that would normally sideline a lesser person, but he has accomplished the unbelievable by earning a spot on the U.S. World Powerlifting Team in a very short time. Most athletes take many years to advance to such an elite level,” said Mike Godawa, Josh’s powerlifting coach.

Despite Dear’s successes, he still struggles with JRA, is considered “disabled for life” and is registered with the Office of Disability Services.

OSD assisted Dear and 910 other University students last spring by providing various accommodations to suit their needs.

Because of his arthritic fingers, OSD provides Dear with a note taker, the option to type essay tests and the most common accommodation provided to registered students, extended time on exams.

Benjamin Cornwell, associate director of Disabilities Services, said his office does everything in its power to assist Dear and the nearly 1,000 other students registered with OSD.

“The most important part of my job is to see that students get what they need and have a level playing field … giving them the opportunity to succeed on campus,” Cornwell said.

And Cornwell’s office has done just that.

“[Disability Services] does their best to help you,” Dear said.

He added that OSD keeps him updated on how to handle situations or utilize services. But despite Dear’s positive feelings toward OSD, he and his coach feel Dear’s condition hasn’t limited him.

“I have never noticed him give up or appear depressed over his situation. He only attacks his training with more enthusiasm and perseverance,” Godawa said. “He is an inspiration to all our lifters and should be to those in the crowd at our competitions as well.”

Dear sometimes feels guilty for comparing his disability to others, because he’s not in a wheelchair nor is his disability obvious to people when they meet him. Dear feels thankful for his blessings, including his

ability to walk.

“I hear people say, ‘Oh I had to walk across campus’ … [Well] I was supposed to be in a wheelchair,” Dear said about those who take routine activities for granted.

While Dear faces obstacles and feels overwhelmed at times, he’s learned to quickly get over a bad day.

“You put limits on yourself and these are the only ones you have. I guess you roll with the punches and do [your] best with what life throws at you,” Dear said. “Basically, [life’s] been a long road of trying to keep the faith and put God first and letting him keep me safe … and it makes for a good story.”

Photographs by Sahir Kahn