On Friday, Sadie's pediatrician referred her to a dermatologist to have her fingernails looked at (from her last journal entry, a few of her nails are falling off). Just that morning another nail started to pull away from the base, so I felt it was a blessing we were being see that day.
Unfortunately the doctor feels that the problem is 100% due to the amount of medication she is on. He did take pieces of the nails that were left on the affected fingers and confirmed that there was no bacteria growing. He also found the start of this on one of her toe nails.
One (of many) of my concerns right now is that on the 14th they will be doubling her medications doses because this flare up is so out of control. I asked him if we should expect more nails to be affected and any other things to happen. He compared what was happening to her body to chemotherapy.. he stated - someone dealing with chemotherapy finds their hair falling out and their nails sometimes turning black, but once the medications are completed, everything returns to normal. Well, obviously he knows little about the fact that these medications are a long term deal. IF the Remicade starts working at double the dose it would be at least a year AFTER her arthritis is under control before we would even talk about weaning her off of them. So, I didn't walk away from the appointment feeling very good about the outcome.
He did say - well, she is having a lot pumped through her body. I think it is easy to just get caught up in treating her to get her well and not think about the amount of medication she is dealing with.
Sadie's ankle is giving her a hard time along with her neck... she has not had a day that her neck has not been bothering her. With school starting in just a few days I can only pray that she will finally start feeling some relief. My prayers are for a miracle... for this to just leave her alone now.
Thank you for visiting the site, I am hopeful and prayerful that my next entry will be a more positive one.
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