Perspective

I am back! After settling back into life after the holidays, I realized I'd been neglecting my responsibilities. :) Some of you have asked me recently about how Jenna's little knee is doing. After a couple of weeks of tests and check ups, here is the whole scoop.

Around Christmas time, Jenna started with occasional complaints of "my leg hurts". There wasn't anything else with it and it didn't follow a pattern at all. About four weeks ago, she started limping and complaining of pain in her right leg in the morning when she'd get up. Two weeks ago, Daddy noticed that her right knee was swollen. Off to the clinic we went.

We took her in, had some tests, and finally ended up getting a referral to a rheumatologist on Friday. We were hoping she just had Lyme’s disease (she tested just barely over the positive threshold), but treatment for that was not resulting in any improvement whatsoever. Given that and a few other factors, the doctor is 99% sure its not Lyme's. After the physical exam, we learned that she has swelling not only in the knee we noticed, but also in her other knee and one ankle. The rheumatologist diagnosed her with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). She is now on a fairly high dose of naproxen twice a day until her symptoms improve.

Luckily, morning time is the only time it seems to affect her too much. She is stiff and limping and hurting, but that improves as the day progresses. From mid-morning on, you wouldn't know a thing was wrong with her. We see that doctor again in six weeks and will likely have regular check ups with him. Based on what we learned Friday, the future looks good, but it will take time and determination to deal with what is happening now. Once this ‘bout is better (may be several months), she has a 50/50 chance of having further occurrences down the road. Some kids completely out grow it, some don’t. The good news is, if in several months or years she complains of stiff swollen joints, we know what it is and to start treatment again. The doctor said that any future occurrences will not be progressively worse (which was my fear) plus we'll know right away what it is and can start the naproxen at the first sign.

As scary as the diagnosis sounds, I feel so much better now knowing what we are dealing with. I'm feeling so much more positive about things now. She likes her rheumatologist and we do too. You could tell that the rheumatology department at the clinic don't get too many three year olds in there - they fawned all over her and she gobbled it all right up. :)

I've had my down moments too. Worse than all of this was hearing the things they were testing her for, in an effort to eliminate things. Hearing your little one doesn't have leukemia is such great news, but you can't get that out of your head soon enough. I continue to remind myself: Its part of our journey and its all about perspective.