Three little words

Some people think that one of the keys to a happy life of contentment is hearing three little words on a regular basis.

But I'd say that right now, for me, one of the keys to a happy life is not hearing three little words on the regular basis. What three words are those? "My knee hurts."

Samantha has been off Motrin and Tylenol and on naproxen instead for three days, and in those three days she has complained exactly once about her knee, and even that was a fleeting "My knee is getting a little sore", which may simply have been from crouching down under bushes picking berries. She never mentioned it again, and she's slept through the night for two nights in a row, which is truly remarkable. Amy and I still aren't getting much sleep because of Joshua, but at least only one of the kids is up in the middle of the night now, which is a godsend.

We still have to get to the bottom of this and identify the generator of Sam's knee pain so we can arrive at a long term solution that's better than just pain management, and over time we have to try reducing the naproxen dose to find the smallest quantity that does the job, but in the meantime the new medication is allowing her to function normally for the first time in ages.

I feel like we're finally at a point where she can start to have her life back again, where she'll be able to go to kindergarten in the fall without having to take medicine during the middle of the school day every day, where we can consider letting her go rock climbing or do dance or gymnastics classes again, or just have sleepovers with friends again. She's really missed those things, especially the sleepovers, and I want her to have them back. So here's hoping that the meds continue to work as well as they have so far.