Back in the saddle again
It's been far too long since I've posted anything regularly here. I'm going to try to get back into the habit, as well as getting into the habit of posting about Joshua, Samantha's new brother.
Yes, Samantha has a brother. He's seven months old now, and she is so into being a big sister. None of that sibling rivalry stuff (yet), and little or no resentment toward him for consuming a lot of Amy's and my attention. She loves to help care for him, to play with him, to make funny faces and make him giggle when he's crying, and to tell him all the things he'll be able to do when he's older. It's really quite sweet to see her with him.
Meanwhile, we're wrestling with a baffling medical issue with Samantha. She's been complaining of severe knee pain for weeks. It's bad enough that she's been waking up every night in the middle of the night, and unless we keep her on Motrin 24 hours a day it pains her during the daytime too. It's bad enough that we've been called by her preschool because she was crying from the pain :-(
She's been through blood tests, x-rays, and a full body radionucleotide bone scan to try to pinpoint the cause, so far without success. But at least the tests have ruled out a lot of things ranging from Lyme disease to leukemia to bone cancers to LCPD. Unfortunately, that means we're still without a diagnosis, and she's still in pain. She has a good pediatric orthopedist and will be going to physical therapy to see if that helps. If there's no resolution over the next few weeks she'll need to undergo an MRI to look for soft tissue damage and to look for signs of an osteoid osteoma.
I'd hate for her to have to undergo the MRI, which invoves sedation for pediatric patients, and hate even more for her to have to undergo the treatment for osteoma. On the other hand, it would be better to know and successfully treat the cause of her pain than to continue to just manage the symptoms.
At today's doctor appointment we learned that Samantha weights 44.4 pounds and stands 44 inches tall. I thought that was an interesting enough coincidence to write about.
And despite being in pain a lot of the time, she's still an adorable, frighteningly intelligent and verbal, generally outgoing, mostly empathic five year old.
Yes, Samantha has a brother. He's seven months old now, and she is so into being a big sister. None of that sibling rivalry stuff (yet), and little or no resentment toward him for consuming a lot of Amy's and my attention. She loves to help care for him, to play with him, to make funny faces and make him giggle when he's crying, and to tell him all the things he'll be able to do when he's older. It's really quite sweet to see her with him.
Meanwhile, we're wrestling with a baffling medical issue with Samantha. She's been complaining of severe knee pain for weeks. It's bad enough that she's been waking up every night in the middle of the night, and unless we keep her on Motrin 24 hours a day it pains her during the daytime too. It's bad enough that we've been called by her preschool because she was crying from the pain :-(
She's been through blood tests, x-rays, and a full body radionucleotide bone scan to try to pinpoint the cause, so far without success. But at least the tests have ruled out a lot of things ranging from Lyme disease to leukemia to bone cancers to LCPD. Unfortunately, that means we're still without a diagnosis, and she's still in pain. She has a good pediatric orthopedist and will be going to physical therapy to see if that helps. If there's no resolution over the next few weeks she'll need to undergo an MRI to look for soft tissue damage and to look for signs of an osteoid osteoma.
I'd hate for her to have to undergo the MRI, which invoves sedation for pediatric patients, and hate even more for her to have to undergo the treatment for osteoma. On the other hand, it would be better to know and successfully treat the cause of her pain than to continue to just manage the symptoms.
At today's doctor appointment we learned that Samantha weights 44.4 pounds and stands 44 inches tall. I thought that was an interesting enough coincidence to write about.
And despite being in pain a lot of the time, she's still an adorable, frighteningly intelligent and verbal, generally outgoing, mostly empathic five year old.
posted by Matt | 12:33 AM
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