So it's been like a week, but I haven't been on the computer as much as normal, so I haven't really blogged much. Most people already know our great news about Siobhan's arthritis, but I wanted to put it out there for the masses (how many of you are there?)
Last Thursday, we had a visit with Dr. I-she's Siobhan's rheumatologist and she's awesome! We were there for a follow up to check on Siobhan's joint injection sites. As usual, she ended up doing a complete examination of all of Siobhan's joints to make sure that her affected joints are doing well along with making sure that the arthritis didn't feel like attacking any other joints. Everything looked so great, Dr. I couldn't even remember which joints were injection because none of the typical signs were even there (i.e. tissue atrophy, dimples at injection sites). We got good news at that point that there was no adverse reaction to the injections. Woo Hoo!
Then Dr. I laid the big one on us. Siobhan is considered being in 'Clinical Remission with Medication'!!!!! This is a big deal and I'll tell you why. We've always been told, that there are a few possible outcomes for this arthritis journey. 1) Siobhan could outgrow it. That happens to less than 25% of patients. We're not holding our breath. 2) Siobhan would have continual flare ups and issues for the rest of her life. 3) Complete remission where there is no signs of active arthritis in any joints without any medication. Well, we are on the first step towards getting to number 3!
So how do we get to #3 you ask? Right now, Siobhan's status is defined as having 'no active signs of arthritis in any joints with medication'. So we know that if we took Siobhan off of her weekly injections, her arthritis would rear it's ugly head and cause us all kinds of problems. So we're going to keep her on the Methotrexate for a year from September 8th and see how it's looking at that point. If her status is the same at that point, we'll take her off those weekly injections and if she can handle that, then she will be considered to be in 'True Remission'.
We're so excited about this because it took a little longer for us to get it under control than it usually does for typical patients and we had to do a little more than most. But we're there and that's awesome! Dr. I took us off of the 6 weeks visit schedule and moved it to every 3 months-so that's awesome! Over the next year, we're going to hope and pray that the meds keep working and that the arthritis doesn't decide that it likes her elbows or hips or any other joint.
There's nothing like seeing your daughter in extreme pain or watching them try to keep up (granted Siobhan didn't have a huge problem with that, she just found ways around it). But there's also nothing like knowing that the likelihood of seeing it again, has been exponentially decreased!
A lot can happen in that amount of time and a lot has happened. It's winter which means the barometer is low (or is it high-either way, up or down, it can be trouble for arthritis), Siobhan started basketball and she's been sick a few times. I'll be interested to see how that all effects the JIA. But I'm going to be optimistic and pray that she's still in remission. That would be a great Christmas present!
I hope all is well in your life!
