Appointment with Dr. Vehe today

We had a appointment with Dr. Vehe (ped Rheumatolgist) today at the Childrens Hospital in Minneapolis. It went really well for now know medication changes and the right knee has improved so well from the joint injection and new meds. He did look at the left knee and confirmed what I had thought that it looks like the arthritis has gone into the left knee. At this point it is very minimal swelling that we aren't going to do anything about unless it gets bigger or starts to cause a lot pain or discomfort. If it does we can up the dose of methotreaxte injection and possibly do a joint injection of steriods. Other than that Jackson is doing well. So we will just pray that the left knee doesn't get any worse. We don't have to see Dr. Vehe for another 8 weeks!!! Thats the longest we have gone before having a appt. With the exception of that left knee not getting worse otherwise we will have to back sooner. After the appt. Jackson had to get labs to monitor the affects of the meds on his liver, kidneys etc. He is such a big boy with this kind of stuff. They always send a child life specialist with to help because a lot of kids hate getting poked with a needle. However our child life specialst was quite impressed that she really wasn't needed with Jackson. He wined a little but otherwise he just sat there and watched. Hopefully we get those results soon, I worry about all the meds he takes and the affects on his body. We did not see Dr. Bothun (Ped Opthamolgist) today, we couldn't seem to cordinate it on the same day with Dr. Vehe so we will be going back up again next week on Wednesday for the appt. with Dr. Bothun. I am also very anxious for this appt. because at the last one the eye had not made any improvment and we had to up the steriod eye drops back up 4x a day.

Mike was unable to come with today and he won't be able to make it next week also so it was just Jackson and I today. For those that know me really well know that I HATE driving in the cities, I get terrible anxiety! I freak out even in the passenger seat and 10x worse when I am doing the driving. However today I did very well with maybe 1 or 2 episodes where my heart was racing. I am worried it won't be the same next week as we have a late appt. which dooms us for rush hour :P Since it was just Jackson and I today and we got done at a resonable time we stopped in Woodbury and went shopping. Got quite a few clothes for Jackson for fall/winter and then we lunch and headed home.

Thanks for checking in and I will update next week after the appt. with Dr. Bothun!

Sara