When we woke up the morning of Oliver's steroid knee injections we set the alarm to wake us up at 6am. We woke Oliver up and fed him a big breakfast, let him play and then at 7:30 (15 minutes before he had to stop eating for the day) fed him another large snack.We had prepared ourselves for a rough day since Oliver LOVEs to eat. I went into work at 9am for a little while and took Liam so Danny could focus on Oliver. Liam and I got home around 10:30 and Oliver was doing surprisingly well! We didn't eat around him and he loved the apple juice he was allowed to have and doesn't drink on a normal day. Anyway, we had to be at Children's Hospital no later than 2pm for his procedure at 3:45.We left around 12:30 to drop Liam off at a friends' house and arrived at the hospital around 1:30pm. We checked in and walked around the hospital. It's a truly beautiful and fun hospital, they did a great job of making every aspect of it fun for the kids. Oliver enjoyed walking around and playing and looking. A friend of our came by to say hi since he was working in the area which was fun too! When they called us back around 3pm we headed to the surgical prep area where they went over paperwork and we met the rheumatologist and the anesthesiologist. Things were running behind so we waited a long time. The anesthesiologist met with us and explained that because Oliver was a preemie and had under developed lungs she was going to start an IV to make sure everything was safe. Anyways, around 4:15 they took us back into the surgical room and had us lay Oliver on the bed. He was fine laying down since Danny and I were still with him. Then they put the mask above his face with some laughing gas, he didn't like that though usually it helps them relax enough to put the mask all the way on their faces. Not Ollie, he freaked so instead they turned on the anesthesia and put it on his face so shorten the process and not make him wait. After about 15 seconds of screaming he was asleep and they walked us out. It brings me to tears even now! We waited in the lobby and around 4:45 the doctor called us and said the procedure went fine and they would be out to get us soon. Praise God! The doctor came out a few minutes later and said "He is waking up very upset and doesn't want his pacifier so we need you guys to go in now, they are giving him some pain meds to calm him, and help the pain" of course you don't want to hear that. When we got back there he was calm and starting to wake up again. We held him, but he woke up super upset again and when the nurse took his IV out he pulled the band aid off and blood went everywhere, but she was able to stop it and Danny walked him around to calm him. We were then released and went home. We were told to keep the two little bandages on his knees for 24 hours. His knees were almost twice as swollen as they had been but that is normal for right after the procedure. On Friday we finally saw some improvement and no limping! Friday night (steroids are known to cause insomnia) Oliver slept off and on 45 minutes ALL night due to insomnia....pretty horrible for an almost 2 year old. But each night got better and now he's sleeping great again. As of today he is still not limping and his knees still look great! We are so excited and so thankful that God is in control! Thank you to all of you who have been praying and loving us!
One prayer request we have-last night after bath time I noticed Oliver's right hip seemed bigger (I think I am SUPER sensitive to anything now) than his left so I took pictures and asked a couple people who also said yes. We checked again today and yes, his right hip is swollen but we are going to give it a few days......maybe its from something other than arthritis? He doesn't seemed bothered by it which can still happen with JIA. This is hard news as we thought his knees were it. The doctor did tell us originally kids with just a couple joints affected (oligoarthritis) can have other joints join in for about 6 months after the onset. Please pray for Oliver and us as this is really hard!
Thank you for praying we LOVE you guys!
