Good News on Longwood

We had our regular check in at Boston Children's Hospital yesterday. Hannah has been doing really well from our perspective, so I was curious as always, to see how the rheumatologist thought she was doing. He knows which joints to really poke on and has other tricks up his sleeve to find any hidden inflammation. He found NOTHING! Given her history of good health over the last several months and my persistence to start the weaning process of medication, he agreed to stop the methotrexate completely! This is really great news. I have been worrying about the long term effects of these medications (we've been doing the methotrexate and Enbrel combination for two years now) and have been anxious to begin the weaning process. I was even more pleased at the news of just stopping it completely.

Her rheumatologist did question me pretty hard about my decision to not give Hannah the flu vaccine. I was proud of myself for holding my ground, stating my two main concerns: 1. There are so many strains of the flu, it doesn't make sense to me to inject foreign matter into the body that will only cover ONE strain. 2. After Hannah's reaction/flare up to traditional vaccine boosters this last summer (the worst flare up we've ever seen in her little body), I don't want to risk another repeat of that. I feel like Hannah's body attacks itself (hence the autoimmune label), it certainly doesn't need an excuse of additional foreign matter (flu vaccine) to attack itself that much more. I know plenty of people who choose to get the flu vaccine and that's okay. I just know that right now, the flu vaccine does not seem like the right thing for me or the kids. And so I wonder, where do you stand on this matter?

But most importantly, thanks for the thoughts and prayers for Hannah. We're down to one medicine with her and I am so grateful, so very grateful.

All I Want For 2010, Are My Two Front Teeth!

Happy New Year everyone!  I have one new year's resolution for 2010: revive the blog.  Fingers crossed that I'll follow through.  If you're reading this, leave a comment, it might encourage me to continue if I know others are actually reading it. 

We're excited to welcome this new year and hope it has good things in store for us, especially after this last challenging year.  As a quick recap, Michael began a new job in June and is enjoying it.  I went back to work too, at the kids' Montessori School.  Hannah is in First grade and Parker is in preschool.  Hannah remains stable with her JRA and the medications.

We are in the midst of a great snow storm here.... it's absolutely gorgeous!  Our family loves snow and it's really great to see our kids bolt for the door as soon as they see the first flakes fly.  Today was no different, as our bundled up kids enjoyed sledding and fort making.  The end of their play would mark a milestone in Hannah's life, though.  

While running toward Michael, she landed face first into his elbow, knocking out both front teeth!  The teeth have been barely hanging on for a few weeks, so we weren't completely surprised about this outcome, but poor Hannah was a bit traumatized.  Her gums would not let up in bleeding, despite using a cold face cloth with ice for 45 minutes.  I finally called Ask A Nurse and it turns out we should have been having her hold a dry cloth on her gums.  Sure enough, the dry cloth worked like a charm.  But she is still walking around with a face cloth in her mouth at all times because she doesn't like the taste/feeling of her raw gums.  Oh poor girlie!  Perhaps the tooth fairy will cheer her up some?