Injections...

Well, our 'Stint in Juvy' took a turn for the slightly more intense today when we took Siobhan in to have her joint injections. First some background and clarification on what was actually being done and why. The basic gist of it all is that the prednisone that Siobhan took this summer didn't do what it needed to do. We were using it as an anti-inflammatory but after six weeks, the inflammation didn't go down enough and Dr. I was not pleased with the result. So she recommended that we just put the steroids right into the joints themselves. Does that clarify it all a little better?

So this morning was the big day. Because Siobhan was going to be under general anesthetic, she had some very specific requirements as far as diet. We were told that if the instructions 'were not followed exactly, the procedure would not happen!' So I got up really early to head her off in the morning. You see, Siobhan has this problem when she gets up and I'm not up yet. She gets into the pantry (or our 72 hours kits-we won't talk about that) and she snacks in the morning. Well, today was not the day for that. She wasn't allowed to have any solid food after midnight last night, and nothing after 7 am. So I got up at about 6:45 to make sure that there was no snitching. It worked because, wouldn't you know, today was the day that she decided to sleep in...until 8am.

We took Siobhan to Primary Children's Hospital at the University of Utah-they are amazing, more on that later-to their Rapid Treatment Unit. Got all checked in went to the 'pre-op' room where the nurse took vital signs and all that good stuff.

*Vital Signs*

Then the best lady came in and explained everything to Siobhan about what was going to happen. She used pictures to show her what the room was going to look like, had a mask to show her how it would feel and let Siobhan pick out the flavor that she wanted to breath in while being given the anesthetic.

Funny story, she had probably 10 flavor vials for Siobhan to smell and pick her favorite. They made a like and dislike pile but the like pile was much bigger than the dislike pile....like she put every vial in the like pile. It was pretty funny. When the anesthesiologist came in Siobhan still hadn't decided. She was leaning toward Cotton Candy then decided on Cherry and the anesthesiologist was happy because he said the cotton candy was too sweet. But in the end, she went with Cotton Candy. They let Me and Carson smell it and OH MY GOSH, it smells just like childhood!

Anyway, Siobhan chose Carson to head back with her while she went 'under'.

About 25 minutes later, Dr. I was back in the room telling us that everything went awesome. She got the needles in just great and she even drained some fluid off of the left knee. She also let us know what we need to do when she got home. That includes keeping her laying down for the first 24 hours (you try keeping Siobhan down for 24 hours....good luck!) and limited activity for another 24 hours. Then about 5 minutes later, a nurse came and brought us back to find a very loopy Siobhan sucking on a straw and drinking grape Fanta. She was hilarious! The first thing she said was 'Mommy, Daddy, I feel dizzy!' and she had a huge goofy grin on her face.


She also got a snack of cheetos which was a big treat because I don't let them in the house (I hate cheetos). Pretty soon, she was loaded into a wheel chair and we were heading to the car (and the torrential downpour).

We were so nurvous about today and I'm glad that it turned out that we really didn't need to be. Between the mention of the words anesthesia, steroids, and injections plus the fear of the unknown and we were, needless to say, a little worried. Siobhan has been resting well and has had minimal pain which has been managed with tylenol. Dr. I also told me that if everything looks alright, we can stop her daily medication and only do her supplements and the weekly injection. How great is that?

And now a word about Primary Children's Medical Center...I know that all children's hospitals are good, they treat children right, so they have to be good and you have to have great people in a setting like that. I just think that PCMC has to be one of the best. We are so lucky and so blessed to have the resources offered there at our disposal. I'm not sure if we would have had the same level of treatment in Denver. Maybe we would have, but I'm learning that Pediatric Rheumatology is a hard department to come by and we are so lucky to have such a beefed up department so close to us. All the nurses at PCMC are friendly and caring and they treat you like you and really your child is the only one who matters. I'm so grateful for that.

It truly is a humbling experience to walk through those doors. Talk about putting you in a vulnerable position with a mixed bag of emotions! At first, you feel grateful that it is available to you and that you only have to be there for a short amount of time, but then you see a parent with a child walking around and you recognize, through subtle clues-exhausted eyes, conspicuous hospital bracelets, jammies, that they have essentially made their home there and you can't help but feel sad for them. I'm so grateful that, theoretically, we will not be in that position as a result of Siobhan's arthritis.