I want to explain quickly why my ears were (and have been) closed to injections. Sadie has had them in the past... 19 to be exact. If you would take her 10 years of diagnosis that is close to almost 2 injections a year, but that isn't the case. Those 19 injections were between 99' and 06' so 7 years, 19 times... each one she is put completely under. The last few times she was injected were very close together in time and seemed to produce NO results. In additions when she had her first surgery (a double open synovectomy) a year after her last injections the found this and further explained it by this.

There was no confirmation that injections did not play a role in the findings during that surgery; therefore... it has been a closed door to me since then. I have made that clear over and over and over again, but here we sit facing fusion; permanently binding the joint together which would mean she would loose all range of motion in the fused joint. The ramifications to her body, both recover and long term are serious. So, if attempting an injection again is the what we have to do, it seems to be the lessor of the evils at this time.

At this point we are stuck in a waiting game on the injections. She needs to be re-seen by her rheumatologist before injection and a decision needs to be made about her left knee (which is still giving her issues). Her doc is doing clinic in Alaska right now which means we have to wait until our appointment all ready scheduled for August 17th.

On one more note... Sadie's acupuncture experience was not so good. The first acupuncture was actually horrible; she could feel all the needles on the right side (she could not feel the left) and from the knee down the pain was piercing and causing her way too much pain; they decided to try the following week, but to leave from the knee down alone. Sadie was brave and agreed to try two more times. The second time went better, but not perfect and yesterday, it didn't go well at all. What we realized is that it is causing her a ton of anxiety and that is counterproductive to what we would like it to be doing. What I realized is... my experience with acupuncture was nothing like hers and that is no different than our arthritis affects the both of us. So, we gave it a shot. Maybe it is the atmosphere (at children's), the association or the fact that she deals with enough needles that even the though is too much or maybe acupuncture is just not her thing. Whatever it is... we are done for now. We are going to look into a few other "relaxing" options for her at this point.

More to come on camp and a family tradition that will take place soon!!