Wednesday was Cameron's appointments in Cincinnati. First, we went to the Rheumy office at 9am. Then to Ophthalmology at 10, back to Rheumy at 11 for physical therapy then to the lab for blood work. It was 1 PM before we got out of there!
The Rheumy visit went pretty well... There was some slight swelling in his right knee again. He is growing and she wanted to make sure he was on the right dosage of his meds so we ended up increasing the Enbrel from 25mg to 30mg... doesn't sound like that big of a deal huh.... Oh but no, just that 5mg means he now will get 3 shots per week instead of 2. He was already on the max dosage of Methotrexate (25mg) so that stayed the same. We doubled the folic acid to 2mg per day and she also added Zofran 4mg to be given 30 min prior to shots and then the following morning and again 8 hrs later if needed. The zofran is an anti-nausea medicine. He has started saying that just seeing the shots makes him feel like he is going to puke. The nurse told me that it is very common to hear that from the kids and said that even though it sounds psychological, it will manifest into physical symptoms and he will actually get to a point of throwing up. She also said it should help with those horrid headaches he gets the day after the shots.
The Ophthalmology visit also went well. They checked his eyes thoroughly and there were no signs of any inflammation or problems. She even looked to see if there was anything that could be causing his headaches. She didn't find anything.
When we went back downstairs for the physical therapy appointment, we found out that he needs orthotics in his shoes due to him being flat footed! She went over some exercises we are supposed to do daily (I had totally forgotten about these!) and fitted the orthotics. They just had to be heated and then molded to his feet. She warned us that for the first little bit, it would feel like rocks in his shoes and he would complain. They have to be trimmed to fit his shoes. I was getting ready to take him to get new shoes so I asked her not to trim them until we got the new shoes. We got the shoes the following day and sure enough, as soon as he put them on, he started complaing. He had a royal meltdown over how bad they felt. He kept saying they were in the wrong place and everything. It took him about 30 minutes to stop crying. To get his mind off it, I took him to Target and got one of the big carts that has the seat for older kids. We went to toys and I gave him a pen and notepad and told him to write down ideas for his birthday. By the time we left, he was totally fine with the orthotics and didn't say another word.
The blood work all came back good. His sed rate is what they look at as a marker for inflammation. In October it was 51, December 40, Feb 5, and March was 4. Normal is 10 or below. So for the April visit, the number had gone back up to 10... still normal, but with the swelling around the knee, it was expected to be up just a little.
On Thursday morning, a prisoner was being transported through our county. He escaped about 2-3 miles from our house. This man was involved in the drug mafia in Massachusetts and was convicted for taking part in the murder and dismemberment of a 19 year old girl. He somehow got out of all his restraints and kicked out the door of the van he was being transported in. This happened within about a mile of the middle school. All schools were put on lock down around 11 or 12 am. We got a call from the superintendent saying the school buses were not going to run, all kids had to be picked up in person at the schools and expect to show an ID. It was crazy! The school handled the chaos very well and I am very proud of the administration of our schools.
Since I had to pick him up, we went on into Lexington to get away from the craziness and also pick up his new shoes. The man hunt continued. Then on Friday, the school buses ran, but the schools remained on lock down. Kids were allowed to move around inside the schools, but no one was allowed outside. I went to Lexington that morning to run some errands and got home about 2:40 to find helicopters flying over my neighborhood! The bus normally comes right about 3pm and it didn't come until almost 3:30. Apparently, the convict had been spotted at the Dairy Queen next door to the high school so the schools were all holding the kids. My house as the crow flies is less than a half mile from the DQ!! Once Cameron got off the bus, we got our stuff together and drove to my Dad's house in Eastern KY. We got word from neighbors that the helicopters were flying all over, along with US Marshalls on 4-wheelers looking around our area, they were even looking in all the drains. They finally picked the guy up Saturday evening! He was still in the same area around the DQ and high school!
I gave Cameron's shots Friday night while at my dad's house. He did fine with the additional shot. He didn't mind the zofran too much either. I also started him on a flintstone vitamin and claritan since his allergies are still acting up. He didn't have many side effects this time.
On Saturday, I took Cameron and my dad up to the Breaks Interstate Park
http://www.breakspark.com/ It was beautiful!
Cameron and his Papaw. Of course, Cameron had to close his eyes!
Notice the little round area near the bottom of the picture... there is a grave marker there for an unknown soldier from the Civil War. The road you see takes you into the park. The next picture was taken from that pull off area at the grave, looking back up to where this picture was taken from...
And just a little more zoomed in.... we were standing by the rail fence.
