Jun 25, 2008

Ayla's injections June 2008




Ayla’s injections were scheduled on Friday June 6th, we drove to Columbus Thursday evening since we had to be at the hospital early Friday morning. After the night we had on Thursday, I knew getting the injections was the right thing to do. Ayla slept in the bed with John and I and she cried out in her sleep all night. She kept saying "my knee". We only got about 3 hours of sleep that night, if that. The next morning we talked to the Dr. Before the injections, and he said that he would only inject the joints that looked bad. They do the injections under ultrasound so they can see the joint and know where to inject the steroid. I held her while they were putting the medicine through her IV and she kept saying over and over "all done". Leaving her by herself while they did the injections was the hardest thing I have ever had to do and I cried like a baby after I left her. After the procedure we found out that he did have to inject all three joints. We were kind of bummed out about that because that meant that all three joints were pretty bad. Anyway, we went and bought her an elmo balloon and a big bird stuffed animal so they would be there to greet her when she woke up. The ride home went okay, she was pretty groggy all day and I just sat and played with her on the floor so she wouldn't have to walk. I tried to get her to eat but she was not interested. I finally got her to eat some chicken soup but she ended up getting sick that night. I guess I shouldn't have forced the issue.
The first couple of days she was sore but after that she amazingly stopped walking without a limp. I remember taking her everywhere saying look, look, she is not limping. We were so happy and so glad that she was feeling better. (She has always had trouble walking up and down the stairs, she would never put weight on her right leg and she would have trouble transitioning from one thing to the other. Example from the pavement to the grass or walking over a curb etc. Her little friends in the neighborhood were always running circles around her, it would always make me sad to see this.)
The swelling in her knee was gone and her ankle and elbow seemed to be doing better as well. Right now I am so excited that she is doing better and I can already see such a huge difference with her and in her personality. She is doing things now like other children her age are doing. She is running and turning around in circles and just being happy. When she started turning around in circles, I was so happy, she has been unable to do things like this until now. It puts a smile on my face to see her doing so well. We also bought her a water table and she plays in it almost every day. She loves playing in the water and it is nice seeing her have so much fun. We had a great father's day, we went out and bought flowers and pots and spent the day planting. Grandma and Grandpa Wright also came over to visit and it was a good day. We have also been able to quit physical therapy for the time being, I promised the Dr. that I would work with her at home so back to normal life for a while. It is a waiting game to see how long the injections last . Next month we will have her lab work done again to see if there are any improvements.