In the beginning...

To be truthful it started in January as we began to pack up our house in Sacramento, Livi had a hugely swollen lymph node on the right backside of her jaw. Dr.'s passed it off as some type of infection that was "being taken care of". The lymph node receeded several weeks later. Jump ahead to Easter, the lymph nodes are swollen again and she is having right knee pain that wakes her up at night, followed by days of non-weight baring and "great" moods to go along with it. :) She was treated for Strep (not the throat kind) and x-rayed but nothing more was found between the pediatrician and the pediatric Orthopedic. These cyles kept happening over the next 4 weeks. (Their original thought was growing pains. It seemed to fit at first.) Then, her right knee started to swell. The Orthopedic and pediatrician collaborated and sent us to the E.R. She was admitted quickly with a "running diagnosis" of Juvenille Reuhmatoid Arthritis. Since there aren't any pediatric reuhmatologists in Vegas, we were set up with Dr. Johnathan Bernstein, an Oncologist/Hemotologist. He started treatment for JRA with anti-inflamatory meds. Her lymph nodes were still present but the type of JRA being considered was "post stephalacacous" so that fit too. Keep in mind at this point, Livi had had multiple blood tests all of which were very normal except for elevated "SED" rates, the amount of inflamation in your blood. Normal for her is 15, hers was 130! After a week of Naproxen things were not improving. The pain was moving through her joints. Classic JRA. Her ankles were tender, her left arm (she is dominantly left handed) was out of commission because her elbow hurt and then her left knee. All this time, still "great moods" and night wakings followed by long sedintary days. After a week of treatment we started pretty much round the clock Tylenol with Codine every 4-6 hrs, and it wasn't cutting it. We had more blood drawn- normal. MRI's-normal. Mother's Day her left knee swelled to the size of a baseball and the Codine WAS NOT WORKING! I called Dr. B. He told us to take her to Sunrise Children's Hospital of L.V. and he admitted her.

These pictures are from Livi's first hospitalization at UMC. It was so hard on everybody. Livi was getting pokes every few hours and nobody seemed to think her pain was as real as it was. Aaron wasn't able to come visit so Bill and I snuck Livi out one evening. He pushed our hands off of the stroller and started pushing Livi towards the exit!  The crib...because of Olivia's age she was automatically admitted to a crib. I took one look at it and laughed. No way was she sleeping in a crib! I had to sign a consent and they quickly got us a bed. (Thank goodness too, where was I supposed to sleep?!)