Hair and Nails

Wendy is home today! She is going to give me a haircut, the first one in two years... Can anyone who knows me even believe I haven't had a haircut in two years or that I have had my natural hair color for almost FIVE years! Amazing. For anyone who doesn't know me, I started bleaching my hair platinum blond when I was about thirteen and usually had a chin length bob with crazy hot roller curls. Very cute. Throw in some red lipstick and thick black liquid eyeliner and that explains how I got all those husbands! Now it's long brown hair with grey streaks held back in clip and chicken poop on my lips. Seriously, chicken poop ~click~.

Ok, Wendy and I are going to attempt to trim Coconuts nails. Wish us luck, and if there's any blood shed (ours) I'll post some pictures, and I'll post some pictures of the before and after hair affair too.

Some Bunny To Love

We got our new gently used bunny Coconut today!! She came with a nice hutch, a huge bag of feed and all of her other worldly bunny belongings. The little girl who had her was allergic so they had to re-home her. The rabbit not the little girl...And here's a picture of Carlos ♥

Pretty cute huh.

Beautiful Day

The sun is out again today which means I don't have the excuse to stay inside and eat bon bons... Oh well, fresh air and hard work never killed anybody. I don't think.

I need to go into town and pick up feed for the menagerie and groceries for us, swing by the bank, make a farm deposit and a bunny money withdrawal. We found a bunny, hutch included to be a friend for Carlos on Craigslist, and you know what they say, every bunny needs some bunny. Then I need to stop for some mower gas and start the never ending job of mowing the grass. Maybe I should invest in a troop of bunnies and let them do all the work.

Wyatt is outside this morning but hurting pretty bad. He is taking Neurontin again three times a day and I'm crossing my fingers it helps.

I haven't seen or heard the calves yet this morning, I hope we weren't hit up by a marauding gang of cow rustlers during the night.

Another New Blog...

I decided to take the leap to WordPress and I am SO glad I did! The format is so much better than Blogger, I wish I would have made the change a long time ago. Now I kind of feel bad for encouraging everyone to start a blog on Blogger.

Nothing has changed much with Wyatt. They discovered that he has limited blood supply to his right foot, but not sure why. I am waiting to get a phone call from scheduling with a new pediatric orthopedic.

We have five new calves in the lower pasture and they are so fun to watch. They make SO much noise, which I love, because I can't stand the neighbors and anything that could possibly irritate them is music to my ears.

Ok, it's taken me over an hour to write this much, I'm going to bed.

Ciao'

Diagnosis?

We are back from another trip to the Hospital

They called this morning to check on how Wyatt was doing and when I told them they told me to bring him in.

He isn't responding to any of the medications that he has been given including Vicodin,

(like I really want him taking Vicodin anyway)

Neurontin, NSAIDS, or even Tylenol.

Once again his blood tests look o.k.

The Doctor gave him a once over (again) and after not finding anything (again) referred us to a Chiropractor or Acupuncturist until we could see the specialist who she was sure would know exactly what was going on.

I opted for Chiropractor first.

We were ale to get in with our family Chiropractor this afternoon so we drove Wyatt there and wheeled him in.

I wish I would have gone there first.

Dr Cracker, short for bone cracker, looked him up and down, asked us questions we hadn't been asked yet, pushed, pulled, turned and tweaked and then had this to say...

Wyatt's lymph nodes are swollen.

His throat is berry red and inflamed.

His belly nodes are swollen and painful to the touch.

It is not just joint pain, but also and mostly muscle and tendon pain.

Dr Cracker is 90% sure Wyatt has Stills Disease which is a type of JRA.

Stills rarely presents in any type of blood test rather it be SED, ANA or even RA specific tests.

Here's what we do...

Take his temp in the morning when he wakes up, and at night before bed.

No tomatoes, potatoes or peppers.

Cod liver oil three times a day.

And, everyone's favorite, follow up with the specialist on Wednesday.

There isn't anything more we can do to control the pain until we meet with the specialist, so it's continued rest and NSAIDS until then.

I feel SO much relief in knowing that someone, ANYONE has some idea as to what this could be.

For now I am putting all my eggs in the Still's basket and hoping for even more answers as the days go by.

I wish I could do something to show our appreciation to everyone who has been so kind to us and showed us so much love and support through this.

Thank you ♥

Not Your General Hospital

I can't believe it's already Thursday.

We spent a better part of the day in the Emergency room yesterday and you know how time flies in a Hospital.

Wyatt continues to get worse and yesterday was horrible.

I decided to move one of the adjustable beds into the living room for him so he could get off the couch. He can't sleep in his water bed because it's impossible for him to get in and out of it.

Moving the bed out required that I first move the couch to the other end of the room so Wyatt would have to sit in a chair while the moving took place.

There were tears running down his face the entire time and he was gasping in pain.

I had called my pediatricians office at 9:00am to get some relief for him.

They called me back around 10:30 and then never returned my call with any solutions.

Mind you, the good doctor that we had seen last Saturday was off yesterday and it was the stinky foot gym loving doctor who was on call.

I decided to do something that I knew was wrong.

I gave him a Vicoden.

And then I called my Mom.

My Mom said it was time we went to the Hospital.

We went.

Wyatt had to ride in the car laying down in the back seat because his hips hurt to much to sit.

To say the least he's lost his bend.

At the Children's Hospital in Portland they have valet parking.

You pull in, a guy runs out to assist you out of your car

(in our case with a wheelchair.)

We walked in, I checked Wyatt in and before I even had a chance to sit down they wheeled him into pediatric emergency and within three minutes of that he was in an exam room with a nurse waiting to take all of our information.

From the time we pulled in to the time we saw a doctor was under 15 minutes.

Amazing.

They did more blood work, gave him some more pain meds to break the pain cycle, and did a bunch of physical examination.

In the end, they said we needed to follow up with the JRA specialist, keep him off his feet and keep him comfortable with pain medication.

So, now Wyatt is in a bed in the living room, using a wheelchair to go to the bathroom and we are counting the days until we see the specialist.

Good times on the Farm.

Anyone want to mow my lawn?

What's Up With Wy...

I know, it's been awhile and I haven't meant to leave anybody hanging.

If you're on Facebook you have been getting little updates, but there is so much going on it's hard to keep up.

First I want to say thank you to everyone who commented, Facebooked me and emailed me about how serious Wyatt's pain could be.

If it wasn't for all of you I would have continued to believe

(as the doctor had told us two years ago)

that these were just growing pains.

I called the doctors office the day of my last post and everyone jumped into action.

Wyatt was seen first thing the next morning and the LNP informed me that what Wyatt had could be a number of things, none of them growing pains. She sent us immediately to the hospital for blood tests and made us a follow up appointment with one of the doctors.

The doctor we saw turned out to be the same one that we had seen in November 2008 and the same one that had diagnosed Wyatt's pain as growing pains. It was obvious that she still believed that's what we were dealing with especially since Wyatt's bloodwork had all come back negative.

She went on to inform me of all the other patients she had seen who had suffered with this kind of pain simply grew out of it after a year or so.

I reminded he that she had treated Wyatt for this two years ago and that it has only continued to get worse.

Way worse.

She ordered more tests, gave him a medical release from school, a prescription for muscle relaxers and referred us to a juvenile rheumatoid specialist.

Then she went on for thirty minutes about her gym, what exercises she does and her kids.

I nearly had to carry Wyatt from her office to the car.

I got home and called the specialist and made an appointment for... May.

Great.

I called the doctors office back and asked them what the hell I was supposed to do in the meantime.

The doctor phoned in another prescription, Elavil which is a very old anti depressant used for sleep and pain issues.

I told her I didn't want to sedate him for a month, I wanted him treated.

Well, it seems that's all she could do for me.

I looked at my son who was now unable to walk without assistance, who cries at night as he sleeps from the pain and who gasps from the pain as he changes position on the couch.

The pain is in his right foot, right knee, left hip, right elbow, right shoulder and his neck.

When she applied pressure to those spots in her exam Wyatt had tears running down his face and would cry out every time she touched him.

I decided that doctor could... Well, I decided I didn't care what she said and made an appointment with another doctor in the clinic.

Yesterday we saw Doctor R.

She examined him for over thirty minutes.

She did physical tests that the other doctor hadn't done.

She found out that he has very limited range of motion in his shoulder.

She found out that anywhere below his right knee he can't differentiate between sharp and smooth, but can only feel pressure.

She is calling to get us in with the JRA specialist... Before May.

She told me it wasn't growing pains.

She told me she will find out what it is.

She ordered a wheelchair to get Wyatt to the car because he couldn't walk.

I cried most of the day yesterday.

I cried because I was scared, because I was relieved that we found someone to help and because I was tired.

You see, it seems that the world doesn't stop, even when you need it to, it just keeps turning, and life keeps throwing things your way and you just have to keep your mitt out there and catch whatever comes.

Except for yesterday.

Yesterday I laid in bed and watched the Earth s l o w l y spin on the Dish Network Earth Channel and it gave me time to breathe.

So thank you Dish Network for bringing me the Earth and thank you to everyone who has held us up and supported us.

I'll keep you "posted"

:)

Peas