Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did! We went to Mike's family dinner first in the afternoon and then went to my familys at 4. Jackson had a great time playing with his cousins. on my side of the family Jackson is one of three boys that are within 1 year of eachother and they have the best time together! So this Thanksgiving I am soooo thankful that although my child is sick with this awful painful disease I am thankful that it isn't cancer or anything that he could die from! While he was in the hospital yesterday I saw a lot of sick kids and kids with cancer. In the room next to us was a baby that was probably about 3 months old and it was crying so hard for a good hour. So although I am mad that Jackson is sick and has to suffer with JRA and Uveitis I am extremely grateful that it isn't worse. I have so much to be thankful for this year! We have only been dealing with this disease for 9 months but it feels like it has been forever. Jackson is such a trooper, he runs and plays and you would never be able to tell by looking at him that he is sick. He continues to amaze me everyday :).

Yesterday was infusion day so we spent the entire day at The Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. My Grandma came with us, thank god because the weather was not in our favor when we left. The roads weren't terrible coming home til we got into Eau Claire. In Minneapolis we only had snow but in Eau Claire they had freezing rain and snow! We saw Dr. Vehe (Rheumatolgist) before the infusion and he checked out good. Dr. Vehe was a little stressed, he had another JRA paitent across the hall that was having heart issues and he was trying to decide if he should admit him to the hospital. Ahhh, these poor kids that deal with this disease. I love Dr. Vehe, he is so great and you can tell he truly cares about his patients! The infusion went good except for it taking forever to get everything going. But that won't change because he has to be admitted to the hospital so its a process. When they went to put the iv in the child life specialist tried holding the book in front of Jackson's face so he couldn't see what they were doing. Well Jackson kept trying to look and they kept being pushy for him not too. But I told her that he likes to watch and that he doesn't cry or get upset so they put the book down. And they were all impressed that he just sits there so calm and quiet while they insert the needle. He is such a good boy! He had lunch after the iv started and pretty much passed out sitting up while he was eating! So he slept almost the whole time. We had a shared room this time, last time we had our own. And the kid in the bed next us had 4 adults and 4 children crammed in our little room and they were being sooo loud. But what do you do! All in all the day went well!

Next appointments are in 3 and 4 weeks.

Sara