Texas Vs. Missouri

To end our fabulous vacation we made a stop to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to see the Longhorns in action! We had a blast! Go Longhorns!

Harper's Knee (Update)

Nothing has improved over the past couple of weeks with Harper's Knee. We returned to the Dr. and he put her on penicillin. The swelling seemed to go down but the pain seemed to increase. We thought that she got a crick in her neck from sleeping because she was starting to have pain in her neck as well. So back to the doctor. He immediately admitted us to the OR at Cook's last Wed. They did a couple more sets of x-rays, and wanted to have an MRI on her knee and total spine. They had her scheduled for her MRI on Thursday at 10:00am. Nothing to eat or drink after 4am that morning. Well 10:00 came and went, so did 1:00pm. Harper has not had anything to eat or drink since 7:00pm the night before. Finally at 2:00pm on Thursday they came in to take her down for her MRI. They put her under anesthesia in case they were going to have to operate. So we wait again.

6:00pm Cody and I were able to go to recovery to see her. We stayed down there for about an hour before the Dr came in to see us. All results say negative to an infection. Which is great, but what is wrong? Pretty much the Dr stands there scratching his head. So what he tells us is that she could have a case of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (which is not his area and is going to have a specialist come and see us). He did say that it is unheard of in a child so young. We go back up to the room and she gets to eat dinner. She was quite cranky but was so excited to eat. She soon cheered up and was the Harper we all know. She was laughing and playing. Cody and I slept pretty good and so did Harper.

The next morning a specialist from Infectious Disease came in, took some notes, and drew some more blood for testing. The ortho came back in and said that they are going to send us to Scottish Rite Hospital to see a specialist there.

Harper was released from the Hospital on Saturday afternoon. I take her to have more lab work done this Friday and then follow up with the Infectious Disease Specialist on Monday morning. In the meantime, we are waiting to hear back from Scottish Rite Hospital to get in there. There is a long waiting list to get in.

Harper is doing okay now. She goes up and down. Mom came in yesterday afternoon to stay with Harper all week so I don't have to put her in daycare.

Other than that we are doing fine. Thanks for everyone's support and prayers. We will keep you posted!

Harper's Knee Nightmare

Well Harper is now 17 months and for those of you who keep up with me, you all know that she is not walking yet. We started physical therapy when she was about 12 months and I got tired of being on a waiting list so I quit. She started to crawl at about 13 months so we thought she was picking it up. Last weekend Cody and I noticed that her left knee was slightly larger than her right knee. She started to limp and soon would not put any pressure on her right leg at all. Without panicking I made her an appointment for Tuesday with her new pediatrician (the last one pissed me off) and he took some x-rays of her knee. The nurse called me back about two hours later and told me I needed to take the x-rays to Cooks Children Hospital downtown now! I freaked out! She told me that they think she might have a "Septic Knee", which is an infection in the joint. So I rush her down there to spend the next 7 hours in the emergency room. They drew blood, set her up for an IV, and stuck a needle about 2 inches long into her knee to take fluid samples. I felt so helpless as she screamed and screamed. Luckily the results came back negative and they sent us home without any diagnosis whatsoever. The orthopedic told us to come back on Friday for a check up. So I take her back to the doctor (the swelling has not subsided at all) and he takes more x-rays and come to the conclusion that she might have had strep throat and the infection went to her knee. Makes no sense to me (She never acted sick, and I think I would have known if she had strep). So we are now on penicillin for the next 10 days and I will take her back in 10 days for another check up. I have not slept very well the last couple of days and I feel like throwing up everywhere. To add to the matter we leave for Corpus on Sunday for a week vacation. Great! Just Great!