Nathan had his ortho appointment today and it went well. She definately believes he has more fluid on his hip and said that if he is active it will take 3-4 weeks to heal. The literature I had read about transient synovitis said that is does not recur, but she said that that is outdated and she has found that it does recur - she said she sees it about 3 or 4 times a year. Since the healing time is so long - it makes sense that it was not yet healed when he did all the walking and the fluid built back up.
She spent a lot of time looking over his xrays and MRI with me on her computer. His hips look perfect - she could see no abnormalities. Interestingly she zoomed in on his femur near the growth plate and showed me three distinct lines. She said this happens while a child gets very sick. She said he must have had 3 bouts of fever and neutropenia - which is true. She was very into all the anatomy on the MRI and it was very interesting looking at it all. She is the doctor who diagnosed Nathan with neuroblastoma and we had always thought she did an outstanding job, and I thought so again today. We are now on her nurse's list of people to get right in and accommodate if we need anything. She is very sympathetic to the fear that leg pain in Nathan causes and will see him on a moment's notice anytime we want. She said if his hip isn't healing like we feel it should she might get him into some pool therapy for a week or so to see if it helps.
I took Julia for her blood draw this afternoon. She just screamed in terror. Of course, they had to poke her twice....UGH! She was pretty traumatized, but I think she will get over it once again. She and Nathan have been giving her ponies IVs lately. In fact, the other day they had to be poked twice because the first time didn't work. Both of them can identify with that!
I will still try to post some pictures soon. It is a matter of locating the cable. The chaos in our lives the past month has really taken a toll on the house and it is an absolute wreck. I don't have the energy to do much about it at the moment either. On the bright side - Nathan and Julia have been having lots of fun playing with the open suitcase on the family room floor. They each get in half and Julia actually straps herself into her half and they pretend it is a car. The two of them just play and play. They really are the perfect playmates. Most of their playing is role-playing and they really get into it. It is such a wonderful thing.
After a few weeks without, we went back to church yesterday. Nathan and Julia really love Sunday school. Julia told us some bible story that we don't know (not that hard to do between the two of us). It is really cute. There have been lots of discussions lately about God, Jesus, Heaven and death. I hope I am giving the right answers! Nathan is such a critical thinker. The other day he said, "if babies come from Mommy's tummies, then where did the very first baby come from?". I explained the two schools of thought on that the best I could. Then we had the age old question from Julia about where was heaven and couldn't we just drive our car to get there?
Well - I have actually rambled a little - not easy for me to do. Thanks for checking in.
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Update Wednesday April 27, 2005 4:03 MDT
I just got back from Julia's appointment. Her echo and EKG are normal and platelets are normal and SED rate is almost back to normal (down to 22 from 103). So - it looks like she will not suffer any side effects from this illness and we can move on. We are very relieved. She is happy she can now run around again. She will have a follow-up echo in September.
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