The diagnosis and the package......

Well for those of you that don't know, Maddy has arthritis. I recently took her to a pediatric arthritis doctor and it has been almost four years since I have had to take her in to be seen. A couple of months ago though she started to complain about her elbow and her wrist hurting. I was hoping that she just did something to them and that it would go away but after a couple of months of her still complaining occasionally that they hurt, I thought I better get her checked out. So when we went to see the doctor we were in for a shocker. Unfortunately the arthritis had spread from her one knee joint to over a dozen other joints in her body. I was shocked as was the doctor. I couldn't believe that she hadn't complained about any of it! She rarely complains of anything hurting except her knee ocassionally but not enough to stop her from doing anything. The doctor was surprised that she was even able to play basketball given the amount of swelling and movement loss that she had in her right wrist and ankle. So he immediately scheduled cortisteriod injections in all the affected joints.

I wish for anything that she didn't have arthritis at her young age and that I could take it away for her. I worry that she won't be able to move her body like little kids should be able to, and that makes me sad. I know that there are many many tougher things that she could have to deal with but I hate seeing my child go through anything hard. My gut tells me she is going to be fine and that this isn't going to be anything that is going to be debilitating for her, but it is a little scary because you never know. I also didn't think that it would have spread to so many joints.

So, tomorrow we go into the hospital for over twelve steroid injections. It really isn't a huge procedure or anything but understandably Maddy was very scared and nervous about it. So what do we do when we are feeling sad? We call our grandmas! When we talked to grandma Beth she told her she was going to send her a special package to help her feel better and that really did the trick. So we got the package today and the girls were so excited. Since grandma was sending a package to Lilly for her birthday and same week she told me that she would include some things for Josey as well so she wouldn't feel to left out. I didn't know she was going to give my girls a Spring Christmas! They got too spoiled!



She even threw in a few things for Lilly even though Lilly had her very own package. Thank you for understanding what it is like to have multiple little children that want to pull something out of the package. You are the best mom and I am really really thankful for your love for my girls and the way that you were able to calm Maddy down. Thank you for everything you do for me and always taking the time to listen to my fears as well. I love you so much!By the way here are your glasses that accidently got thrown in the package. Maddy thought originally that you had sent her a new pair of glasses!