Jackson had x rays and blood work done on Monday. The x rays showed no damage to the bones yet which is good. It did show inflammation in the joints affected. In the x rays they saw it in both knees, we have only been aware of one knee. They may cause them to change his diagnois from pauciarticular to polyarticular. His platelet count is back down to normal. He does have a high sed rate in his blood which is normal in kids with JRA. His hematocrit is low, they didn't eloborate on this yet though. But his labs for his kidneys are good, this will be checked on a regular basis to make sure the high doses of meds aren't affecting his kidneys. We still haven't heard back from the Ped regaurding his partial collapsed lung so I called again today and she just left vacation so I guess I will have to keep worrying about that for another 10 days!

Jackson is still having a lot of pain and a lot of episodes where he wants to be carried everywhere. I have been tempted to call the Doctor several times but I am trying to hold out the full 6 weeks. But it is hard to watch him suffer everyday!

We are now having issues with the getting charged double the co pay for each doctor appt. due to the fact the U of M Hospital sends 2 bills. This has been a nightmare for me that I may be forced to switch doctors and Hospitals. I don't want too but with all the co pays racking up I can't afford to be paying double just because they can't put the bill on one bill to satsify the insurance company! So well see what happens Monday.

On a good note Jackson has been enjoying the summer. Playing outside and we went to the circus last Wedneday. He loved it, he even rode on the elephant.

Thats it for now. Thank you again for checking on Jackson!

Sara