and...the diagnosis....

our trip to children's hospital went great.
we stayed with our brother in law chris,  who is in med school there.
that was a nice treat.

it was so evident that God was taking care of us the whole time.
we had heard that you have to wait a really long time at Children's, so that's what we planned for.
i think my purse weighed more than i do with all the snacks and activities i had packed for sawyer.

however, it turned out that it was the first day of public schools there so there were only 2 other kids in the waiting room.  awesomeness.
 also because of that, chris didn't have any patients so he was able to go with us to our appointment.
that was wonderful. 

 he was able to explain things to me more fully and ask questions for me when i sat there like a deer in head lights.

i'd never been to children's hospital before.
it was obvious they worked hard to make it fun for the kids.
there were lots of neat things for sawyer to see and play on.
i was very aware and grateful that children's hospital had not been a part of our lives before.  i do not take that for granted.
when finley was 3 weeks old, he had to stay in the hospital for a few days. i laid awake at night listening to little children cry down the hall.  i gained such a respect for those parents of chronically ill children and what their families go through.  i will never forget that experience.

sawyer did so great. he was a busy little body the whole time but he sat perfectly still and quiet during the exam and xrays. i think he liked the attention. :)
getting the blood work was sad.  but he was a trooper and did great.

i am happy because we have a diagnosis.  we have a direction to go.
he has oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis.  whew, that was a rough one to spell out!
it's what many of you know as JRA (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) just with a new name.
the good news is that it's only affecting one joint so he should grow out of it.
yay!
he is at risk for uveitis (chronic eye inflammation) so we have to go see an eye doctor every few months.

i'm still trying to wrap my mind around this whole thing, but basically, with juvenile arthritis, the immune system hurts your joints.  it's considered an auto immune disease.

so for right now, he'll have a medicine he takes twice a day and wear the brace and we'll see if the swelling is better in two months...if not, we'll go from there.

so that's it. we're praying for complete healing, no uveitis and for his mama to get over the ugly shoes already.

thanks so much for your prayers and concerns for our little sweetie. Pin It