November 20, 2009

Today we are back at Children's but this time it is for her regular Remicade infusion. It is a busy day in the infusion center today... which means it will be slow going here. For those that are newer to reading this blog; Sadie undergoes Remicade (name of medication) infusions (which just means by IV) every 4 weeks. Remicade is a medication used to control the over active immune system that causes rheumatoid arthritis. A typical Remicade (I will often refer to this as remi) takes about around 5 hours. This medication is the longest medication that has worked for Sadie so we are very grateful that we have found something that her body responds well too. She has been doing these infusions for 3.5 years (which is really hard to believe). We arrived today at 2:30 and we expect that we will be here until around 7:30 tonight.

Sadie has been doing increasingly well over the last few days. We have timed out her pain medication as far between as we can and for the first time today I gave the lowest dose I could and she is tolerating that. The doctors were right, once she turned a corner, she was good. If she moves to quick or puts pressure on her knee she experiences pain, but just sitting she says it's about a 2; she knows she has a knee, but it isn't horribly painful anymore. Yesterday and today she has put a tiny bit of weight on her left leg, that is painful! I think some of that pain comes from not using that leg at all for 10 days and obviously some is just from the surgery. We are prayerful that we can get her putting more weight on that leg this weekend. This will require quite a bit of her and so if you can pray that she is will to push herself while knowing what truly is too much and that we can clearly discern between what is her needing to be pushed and her truly having too much.

For the next three weeks we have one appointment a week, however we added a second appointment after Thanksgiving to start physical therapy; that might add a few more appointments to the plan. Hopefully she will be able to do most of her therapy locally, but we shall see how the next week progresses. I am excited for her recovery and I look forward to three weeks from now when she can start putting weight on her ankle and we know how much pain relief came from the surgery.


For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Happy Thanksgiving!