How to tell....

January 18, 2011

Hi again all,

I am wondering about something and hope maybe you can help.

While Madison has had time periods where the affected joints are painful,

there have also been times when there is no pain. After her other knee

flared in August and we decided to do the steroid injections, we chose to

wait till we were in Houston for other care in November. While our rheumy

agreed to this, he cautioned that even when she is not in pain, the

inflammation is still doing damage and we should not wait any longer than

absolutely necessary.

That thought had not really occurred to me at the time. I was hung up on

controlling the pain, understandably, but had not been considering how the

joints were affected even when pain was controlled.

We are now about 6 weeks out from her steroid injections and we¹ve not had

any pain in the affected joints, but I am not sure how I can tell if the

inflammation has been controlled!! She has rather ³puffy² knee¹s anyway, so

it¹s hard for me to tell when they are swollen, and for parts of the last

year, they have only been ³mildly² puffy, meaning I cannot see it at all.

So my question for you all.....

How do you monitor their inflammation? What process do you use to determine

when it¹s being controlled?

Thanks so much!!

BIG hugs,

, proud mom to Chance(17-Mito), Madison(14-Mito/JIA), and

Abigail(12-Mito)

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