Thursday, March 22, 2012

My Poor Cody... The Long Wait on Testing

You guessed it, we were back at the doctor's again with Cody yesterday. What else is new. Poor kid.

Cody was having a lot of pain in his legs and feet over the weekend. And I mean a lot! He was miserable through Blakeley's blessing, seeing Glen and his family,going to church Sunday, and even going to Cherie's to hold Blakeley for the first time he was miserable. So I took him in to Dr. Duffy again yesterday morning. We tried giving him Benedryl Sunday and Monday, but it didn't seem to do anything for him (it didn't even knock him out! I'm gone within an hour of taking that. Man this kid is tough! Dr. Duffy even said the same thing about him -  it knocks him cold!)

We told Dr. Duffy it just doesn't seem to be getting better. We tried the Benedryl but nothing was working there, either. And we even stopped his training for football. We didn't want to cause any more damage with trying to train. Dr. Duffy became more serious this time, which scared me. Usually he's pretty light hearted and fun, I mean, look at last time... joke after joke. He said he wanted to take some x-rays of Cody's hips and make sure the ball joint hadn't slipped, causing weird pressure on his feet. I guess sometimes that can happen with kids who are a little bigger. He didn't think that was the cause, but he wanted to make sure. And then he wanted to do blood work to check for something... Rheumatoid Arthritis.

My heart sank.

He went over our family medical history again and asked how closely related the person was to Cody who had it. It was my Grandma Holt... Cody's Great Grandma. So ya, it was still pretty close. He said there was going to be a lot of blood work done today and that he'd call me at the end of the day when the results were in. Dr. Duffy did mention that even if the blood tests were normal, there was still a small chance of Cody developing Rheumatoid Arthritis later on and that's why this weird reactive arthritis to strep is hanging on so long. That it could be dormant in him right now and just not show up. Great. He also ran a strep test to make sure he didn't have it again. That came back normal, which was both good and bad. Good in that I didn't want strep again, and bad in that now it's looking more and more like it could be Rheumatoid Arthritis. He said in the mean time to switch and have Cody take Claritin. It's a stringer medicine and stays in your system for 24 hours so it should work better if it's a reactive arthritis we're dealing with.

So, after the x-rays were done, Cody and I headed downstairs to the lab. Cody was pretty nervous. He's never had to have blood drawn before. I knew he was nervous cause he held my hand. Luckily, we got an excellent phlebotomist who did a quick stick that didn't hurt much at all. I was surprised at how many viles they took, I think it was four or five. She said most results would be done by tonight but some not for 24 hours. So the waiting game began.

I was honest with Cody and explained what they were testing for. I think it's important for kids to know, too. Cody dealt with it pretty well and didn't freak out.

We ran to Walmart where we bought some Claritin for Cody, a movie - Dr. Dolittle 1 & 2, and a lunchable for lunch.

I bought Pioneer Woman's new cookbook for me. I wasn't going to because of how much it was until Cody said if I didn't by that for myself, he was going to buy it for me. So I did. With how much stress I've been under with Cody, I needed something to take my mind off of it.

I stayed off my phone all day, just texting when I needed to get a hold of someone. Carrie kept T.J. and Hunter at her house all day to give Cody and I a break and relax. And then at 4:30, Cody and T.J. went to scouts. It was a nice break, albeit stressful though waiting for that dreaded call. Cody started asking me more and more, "Do you think I have it?" I'd just answer with an, "I don't know Bud, let's just wait and see what they say and we'll go from there."

He was starting to get more nervous.

I knew the minute I went to pick up the boys from scouts, they'd call, and sure enough, they did. Dr Duffy's nurse called and said the results from the x-rays all looked good, and they hadn't gotten back all the blood work just yet, but one of the levels - the inflammation level - was up showing something was going on. So Dr. Duffy wanted to retest some blood work again in the morning. Cody wasn't too happy with that at all.

We had Trevor come over last night to help Jared give Cody a priesthood blessing. The blessing promised Cody that his body would heal and go back to normal again. That through the atonement of Jesus Christ, he would be healed. And it promised that he would get a good night's sleep. Cody hasn't slept through the night in quite a while. Every time he turns over, he wakes up in pain, sometimes not being able to go to sleep again for a while. Cody slept great last night, didn't wake up once. And the blessing helped to calm nerves some for all of us. I love priesthood blessings.

So this morning, after dropping the others off at Carrie's (it's so nice she works from home when stuff like this hits!), Cody and I headed to the Hospital again. Luckily we only had to go to the lab today so we wouldn't be at the Doc's all morning like yesterday. As we checked in at the register's office, Cody made a point to tell me her office smelled like gummy worms. He's such a funny kid! Nothing gets past him.

The blood work went pretty good. This time it hurt more then yesterday's. We got the room again with the cool picture of the barn. I love barns.

Once that was over we went home for yet another waiting game of that dreaded phone call. Cody did seem to be doing a little better then yesterday with the pain in his legs. I prayed so hard that the Claritin would work and he wouldn't be looking at Rheumatoid Arthritis all his life.

Every time the phone rang we both would jump. I realized how much this was affecting Cody. When I'd tell him it wasn't the doctor that called, he's get so ornery. We both just wanted to know if he had it or not.

I was surprised when his office called at 2:00. I thought we'd be waiting all day again. Dr. Duffy's nurse said all the results were in and it was good. It showed no signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis and his inflammation levels a had dropped just a bit!!!!! Oh I was so happy to hear that! I told the nurse to let Dr. Duffy know Cody seemed to be doing a touch better from the Claritin. We were told to continue with the Claritin for a week and see how he is. And to call with updates to let Dr. Duffy know how he's doing.

I jumped off that phone as fast as I could and told Jared the news. Then I went outside to find Cody, who was out with the animals trying to take his mind off of this, and told him the good news, along with a big hug! We were both so relieved!

I'm so glad things turned out this way. I couldn't even imagine facing Rheumatoid Arthritis with a child so young. Especially to know we'd be eventually facing cancer treatments if he'd had this to help control it. I'm so thankful for answers to prayers and priesthood blessings.

And modern day medicine.

And Claritin.

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