Update (Long)

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Life has been a total whirlwind since graduation, mostly good though. I decided to reschedule the GI follow through and went to my rheumy appointment which was a good choice. Dr. C. was glad to see that the joint injection worked so well on my knee, she was slightly disappointed though that my other joints were showing swelling. We are kind of at a weird place right now in my treatment, my body finally after a year and a half of having critically low iron and albumin levels has recovered, so she is incredibly hesitant about starting me on any medication that will change that, not to mention that my stomach has never tolerated oral medication well and she does not want to see my counts start dropping or my stomach to start hurting again. So for now we wait, I can handle this and we are monitoring it for any damage that may occur because in her opinion if the medication needs to be started we can deal with iron infusions again but you can't reverse joint damage. Her other

hope is that the gluten free diet will continue to provide improvement to me. So far it has been going really well, my stomach is feeling better, and I am no longer nauseous which I have been my whole life, so that is great. I have had some weight loss on it, which doesn't look bad, she said I needed to be careful at this point because she does not want me to get too skinny. I was never fat 150 on a 5'7 is in the normal range, but now I am 130 so less pressure on the joints in my opinion but I do see her concern. One thing I found interesting is they are once again putting my diagnosis on the review table. I was originally at seven diagnosed with JIA. Then they classified it as Polyarticular JRA. Then they added in the diagnosis of JAS. There has always been speculation about Lupus and MCTD. Right now Dr. C is leaning towards an unspecified MCTD, I'm not sure if that goes along with JAS or what but she says that where we have seen most damage has been in my

connective tissue, however due to the kidney problems I had a few years back, and the recent decline in my lung capacity she would not rule out Lupus either. All in all I'm soo confused, sixteen and a half years and who the heck knows what to classify me, she said the classification didn't matter because no matter what the treatment I was on in the past was the right treatment for all of the above, and any future treatment would be typical for that spectrum of disease. But despite all that I am doing pretty good. I'm feeling very blessed and incredibly excited about this next step in my life. I went to my orientation for my teaching credential program and met with the people who I will be doing my intensive program with. I even found out that I will be doing my student teaching at a magnet Montessori school which is really exciting, not only will I be learning typical teaching styles I will also be learning some interesting Montessori techniques. I start

school on the 9th of this month for a three week summer session, but student teaching wont start till August 25th. So really that is all that is going on with me, quite a ramble! Thank you all for your good thoughts.With Love; (JAS or MCTD or Poly JRA or Who knows, 23) Salvucci Behavioral Therapist Pacific Child and Family Associates San Mateo, CA 94402 c: 650-302-3703