Back To The Drawing Board!

As you may remember, we received a very good report from Mia's rheumatologist back in December regarding her JRA. He said there was no evidence of arthritis in her body and said we could start weaning her off of the naproxen. Overjoyed with this wonderful news, we did something very, very stupid - we let our guard down. Her rheumatologist said the weaning process would take three to six months. We did it too fast.

We were fairly consistent in January. When February came, we started to slip up missing doses here and there until she was completely off the meds the entire month of March. During that time I added white potatoes back into her diet and she has had more white sugar than she normally does. Jellybeans and peeps are a huge fave in our family. Darn Easter!! :)

I think it was a combination of several things - we were tired, exhausted and worn out from the various doctor appointments, therapy appointments and daily medications we were giving Mia. We needed a break. I needed a break. The previous year had been such a horrible one for our family and when we received this bit of hope, we breathed a huge sigh of relief thinking everything was over. The other side of it was we were curious to see how she would do with out the meds and just on the diet alone. Guess we know now, don't we...

Mia had her eye appointment today with Dr. Zuckerman. While she got a good report about her eyes, her doctor took a look at her left knee and wanted to know what happened. So, I admitted to her that we slacked, but told her she is back on the meds again. She warned me about how easy it is for uveitis (inflammation in the eyes) to suddenly pop up out of nowhere when a child is having a flare. She said she's seen it too many times in patients, especially young girls with JRA.

So, that's where we are at. Mia is back on naproxen twice a day, cod liver oil once a day, and we will be starting up physical therapy again. We will also be meeting with her rheumatologist this month...and, hopefully, we won't get scolded for our stupidity.

Well, friends, that is the latest news in our journey...we are smack in the middle of Round Two with JRA. At least we know what to do this time around. Now, we just need to get Mia's inflammation down and get her back to feeling better. Please continue to keep her in your prayers (and us, too)!