Clear Eyes, MRI and Wrist Warmers

Clear Eyes:

Mia has been on Indocin (4.5 mls, 2x a day) for 16 months now and has been doing very well on it. She does complain from time to time of pain in her writing hand (top knuckles), but other than that, she has been pain free! She also went in last Monday to MERSI to get her eyes checked for uveitis and got a report that her eyes are still clear! That is huge - she has had clear eyes since she was diagnosed with JA over four years ago. Thank you, God! 

MRI:

JJ goes in this Wednesday morning to Tufts for an MRI (with sedation). They will be checking an area of the intestines they were not able to see when he had the endoscopy and colonoscopy last month. What are they checking for? Well, right now he is showing signs of Celiac AND signs of Crohns. So, the doctor is hoping the MRI will point us in the right direction as far as figuring out what is going on in his body right now. We are praying for answers to what has been going on with him. He continues to have joint pain in his ankles, left elbow and left wrist, along with stomach pain, chronic diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and shin pain and bruising. He is still skipping meals and if does he eats he usually tells me afterwards he feels "yucky." He has thrown up a couple of times after eating. Sometime he will say he is hungry, sit down at the table to eat (then run to the bathroom) try to take a bite and feel sick. He will then ask to be excused to lay down on the couch, but requests that I don't take his food away because he would like to try to eat it in a bit. However, most of the times when he comes back to the table, he is still feeling too crummy to eat. And so, he doesn't. And, we try to start fresh again the next day....

His rheumatologist contacted me and wants him back on the Mobic (Meloxicam - 1.3 mls, 1x a day). He has been off of it for over a month now. His GI doctor agrees with the rheum - he needs to go back on it to alleviate his joint pain. The rheum said to back off on the Mobic if he is feeling any worse while on it. So, we will see how this goes. I started him back on it tonight. Right now, he has the rice sock (the only one we have that my cousin made for ME many, many moons ago) on his tummy and says his legs (shins) hurt and he feels "yucky." I do what I do every night: pray over him, make him as comfortable as possible, heat up the rice sock several times until he finally falls asleep with it either on his tummy or on his legs. In the morning, the first thing that wakes him up is tummy pain/discomfort.

I will keep you posted on how everything goes with JJ on Wednesday. He has an appointment with his GI doctor immediately after the MRI. Thank you to all of you who have texted, emailed and called to inquire as to how he is doing. We appreciate all of your love, prayers, kind words of advice and encouragement right now.

Wrist Warmers:

In other news, I was perusing Pinterest a few weeks ago and found these awesome "wrist warmers" - I like to call them "wrist soothers" or "pain alleviators" - for those with arthritis. I thought I'd pass them on to all of my arthritis friends (helloooo! stocking stuffers!!!). This seller, The Ferris Wheel, has several different "warmers" featured in their shop. My kids both want one (and I would not mind them having one of their very own so they would stop fighting over MINE! Ha!). Definitely a great Christmas gift idea for those suffering from RA and little ones suffering from JA. I know our rice sock is in constant demand in our house and gets used on a daily basis. I think I might need to pick up a few of these: