And So it goes…

And so it goes..  It’s so hard to believe it’s July. Time just seems to speed by.

Last week we went to Mammoth for the Keene family reunion.  What a great time!  75 Keene’s all in one place.    The weather was perfect and the accommodations were awesome with most of the family (Aaron’s immediate) staying together.   His sister and her family were just 5 minutes down the road, which allowed for tons of immediate family bonding and fun. The Keene family (the 75 clan) is like nothing you’ve ever met.  Everyone is nice, happy and makes you feel so welcome.  All that with the incredible Mammoth Mountain scenery made for an incredible weekend.

Sophie’s hydrocephalus typically doesn’t favor altitude and unfortunately this trip was no different.  She tried so hard but her body definitely told her what it needed and that was SLEEP.  And lots of it.  Trent on the other hand had the time of his life with his cousins. Hours, and hours of play.   You have never seen a happier guy.   We are truly blessed with an amazing family!

I can’t believe it’s already July.  For the last several weeks our Sophie girl has complained of foot pain and on some days she has been limping.   Aaron and I have had many discussions about what to do including what type of doctor to take her to (orthopedics, etc) and so whatever reason I thought I’d be efficient and take her to urgent care last Sunday night.  I figure since it was probably some sort of sprain we could just have her examined, get an x-ray and be done with it.  I’m not sure what’s wrong with me.  Why I thought that was a good idea is beyond me.  Pretty much there is 4 hours and $20 I’ll never get back- and Sophie was still in pain.

So off we went to our pediatrician on Monday.  They are so great.  We always come in with challenges (the doctor laughed and said when she heard we were coming all she could think- was simple normal for once) Unfortunately it wasn’t.   After being looked at by two doctors in the practice and we were sent off for a whole series of blood tests. We will still have one more advance test to come back next week (it had to be sent our to a more sophisticated lab) but the preliminary diagnosis appears to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.   Thank goodness for our pediatric practice.  They’re the first ones to recommend that something is beyond them and reach out for a specialist.  So next week we’ll be heading up to Packard to a new clinic.  Poor Sophie though, several of her joint are now swollen and she’s in a lot of pain. We’ve been giving her children’s Motrin every 4 hours but it’s beginning to help less and less.

For whatever reason this is harder than so many of the other things she’s gone through.  I guess it’s because we kind of thought we had everything in maintenance mode and now- it’s one more thing.    And nothing can beat the feeling of “how is it that she just can’t get a break?”

In spite of this all, we are so thankful for both of them. Trent is such a little man now- getting himself dressed, expressing himself and trying to be a big boy (although he still loves his blankie, to be held and his thumb).  And Sophie, well she’s Sophie.  She’ll just keep at it.