Forever Thankful

May is "National Arthritis Awareness Month." We have many friends with children who are fighting this disease. We are still fighting this disease. Every day. And, we fight alongside so many amazing families and their very brave children...many who have become some of our dearest friends.

But, that's not what this post is about.

Today, I am rejoicing! I am beaming! Because this month marks one year that our son, JJ, is arthritis-free! His rheumatologist is amazed...astonished, even. She has seen him several times in the last year and still can not believe how healthy he is now. While our daughter has been the one who has fought this disease longer, the doctor has told us from the very beginning that she always saw JJ as the "sicker of the two kids."

Not anymore!

We went from having a son with fluid on many joints (elbows, left wrist, both hips, both knees and both ankles), to a child who has no pain anywhere. We went from having a son who woke up with morning stiffness and could hardly walk down the hall to go to the bathroom, who was constantly asking us to heat up rice socks to place on his aching joints, who was lethargic, pale and sickly-looking, to a child who wakes up happy, runs, plays, and then goes to bed without begging for hot rice socks and sleeps soundly through the night. We went from giving him daily doses of NSAIDs (Ibuprofen and then Meloxicam) to not having to give him any daily meds at all!

We have also gone from a having a son with severe gastrointestinal issues to one who feels absolutely fine after he eats. When JJ did eat, he would get sick about 20 minutes into the meal. He would either throw-up or his stomach would start to cramp so bad that he would cry and ask to go lay down on the couch with a rice sock on his tummy. He had chronic diarrhea. He had low-grade temps all of the time. We were basically living at Tufts Floating Hospital for Children, "floating" back and forth between the 2nd floor to see the gastro doc and the 4th floor to see the rheumatologist. His rheumatologist was the one who noticed it had been nine months since he'd put on any weight. JJ missed a ton of preschool that year and had to undergo a colonoscopy, endoscopy, upper GI series all within a few weeks of each other. Procedures that no little boy should have to go through.

Not anymore!

JJ no longer has gastrointestinal issues. The chronic diarrhea is gone. No more weird, random fevers. He loves to eat and no longer gets sick when he eats.

Which is probably causing many of you to ask, "So, what does he eat then?"

One year ago this month, we changed his diet and that's when the arthritis and the gastrointestinal issues stopped. JJ is on a gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, egg-free, soy-free diet. He has a list of foods he is sensitive to that we avoid:

He also takes 1tsp of cod liver oil every day, 2 oz. of pomegranate juice (Pom), and 1000iu of Vitamin D3. And, that is it. No other medicines.

Like I said, we are still fighting. Our oldest child, Mia (age 7), is still fighting juvenile arthritis. But, I am not going to talk about the challenges we've had or the tears we've shed because of this horrible disease. Today, I am a thankful, ecstatic, joyful mom! Today, I am thanking God for hearing the prayers of two desperate parents and for putting the right people in our lives at the exact time we needed them. Because one year ago this month our son's life changed for the better. And that, my friends, is something to be forever thankful about.

"I thank you from my heart, and I will never stop singing your praises, my Lord and my God." 
Psalm 30:12