Mia had an appointment with Dr. Lopez today. Jay took her because I am on bed rest still....and I am glad I didn't go because they waited two-and-a-half hours to see the doctor! Crazy!
Dr. Lopez looked at Mia's joints and said there is definitely fluid on her knee again. He wants her to continue taking the ibuprofen (2 tsp, 3x a day) for the next four weeks and continue going to PT to try to get that swelling down. If the swelling does not go down four weeks from now then he wants to drain the knee and inject it with steroids again...just like they did last spring.
When Jay shared the doctor's report with me, at first I was bummed. But, then I remembered how well her knee responded to last year's drain and injection. And, the timing is good, too, because she will be officially out of school next Thursday and will have the summer to get this under control before she goes back to school in the fall. She really, really, REALLY wants to take ballet again in the fall. So, we've got to get this knee back to where it is supposed to be.
The most interesting part of the visit was how Dr. Lopez asked my husband to fill out a survey that they are doing of all their patients to find out if diet has anything to do with their arthritis. HELLO!!! I've been saying that since she was 22 months old!! He also mentioned to my husband they are looking into the connection between Vitamin D and inflammation. Again, I've been saying this since day one! It is the reason why we immediately switched Mia over to rice milk after she was diagnosed, despite her rheumy's request to keep her on whole milk. Amazing.
So, we will see how she is doing a month from now. Who knows? Maybe the ibuprofen combined with some PT, getting back on the diet again and the daily teaspoon of cod liver oil will help us like it did the first month of this journey. But, even if it doesn't, I feel good about getting her knee injected and drained. The main thing is that fluid just can NOT sit there on her knee. That is what does the most damage to her joints.
Well, I'll keep ya posted! They did blood work today, too. I am curious to find out what her sed rate is at right now. I'll call in a day or so to find out...
