to little rock and back again

what a long day.
it went better than expected, but i'm so glad it's over.

i got texts, emails, & calls all day from friends and family telling us they were praying & checking up on sawyer.
so encouraging.
(you guys rock).

today was sawyer's big day to have an MRI done on his ankle & foot.
we found out on friday that it was scheduled for today.
thankfully the boys were in school all day and my mom was able to keep them for the evening.

we were to check in at noon with the MRI scheduled for 2.
they originally told me he wouldn't be able to have anything to eat or drink (not even water) for the whole day.
i got all weepy on the phone with the nurse when she told me that.
you can't explain that to a 2 year old.

i found out yesterday that he could eat before 6 am and have 8 oz. of juice before 11.
such a relief.
i woke sawyer up at 5:30 this morning to feed him some breakfast & milk.
he ate a bit and then i put him back to bed.
we left for little rock a little before 9.
he drank his 8 oz. of juice on the way.
we checked in to radiology at 12.
we waited in that waiting room for two hours. 
and sawyer did awesome.
i know it is because of all the prayers coming our way.
that is a small, boring place for a 2 year old to be entertained for that long.
he didn't fuss once and didn't ask for food or drink at all.
he normally naps around 12:30 or 1 and we blew right through that as well.
at 2 we went down to the MRI wing.
he got to wear this sweet get up....

fleecy scrubs....so stinkin cute.
we waited in this little room for an hour.
i take that back...we did spend some time walking the halls during this hour & swinging sawyer around.
he asked to go "night night" once and was looking pretty tired, but he was a trooper.
he watched some wiggles.

i took a nap with a pack of diapers for a pillow.

oh and i almost forgot, aj's sister, jill came and hung out with us for almost the whole time.
that was a treat and really kept us sane.
she even brought us chic fil a for dinner.  big highlight.

they sedated him at 3 (not fun to watch) and then we went to wait some more.
after the MRI they decided to send him upstairs to get a steroid shot in his ankle.
so we went to another waiting room.
ate dinner with jill.
then at 5:45 they said we could come back!
then we met sawyer the crazy lunatic coming off anesthesia.
it was sad and humorous at the same time. 
every time i tried to give him his taggie, he threw it away as hard as he could.
he kept trying to rip the i.v. out.
poor little guy.
so we took our crying baby out and headed home....about 45 minutes later a flip switched and he was our happy little sawyer.

whew!
long, long day.
i'm glad to be home.
glad we got that over with.
hopeful that the steroid shot will do some work on that arthritis.

thanks to all of you who prayed for & encouraged us today.
it meant the world. Pin It

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