Update

Friends and Family,

Well it looks like Lucy has Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. But I don’t think it is as bad as it sounds. Actually, we are all just really glad we found out what was wrong. We saw a Juvenile Rheumatologist yesterday at Children’s Hospital and he told us he knew she had it before he even saw her based on her charts. And after he saw it he is 99.9% sure she has it. You can’t be a 100% sure since there is no test for it, but he says everything he sees and hears fits it exactly.

The good news is that the earlier of a diagnosis of it usually gives us the best chance of getting rid of it or at least managing it. He really hopes through medication and physical therapy we can eliminate her limp and we really hope we’ll start to see her run soon. There is also a good chance that it will go into remission as she grows older.

She only has it in one joint and possibly one toe. The dangers are that it could spread to other joints and that it could cause eye problems. But since we caught it early we can treat it to keep it from spreading and we’ll have regular eye check ups to help catch any problems there as early as possible.

So after many doctors appointments trying to find out was wrong and some just trying to convince some doctors that something was wrong we finally have an answer, and for that we are very relieved and even excited that we have a treatment that we can finally begin. That is an answer to prayer that we praise God for. If you want to continue to pray for Lucy pray that it doesn’t spread, her eyes stayed protected, and that her limp goes away. And if you want to be very bold in prayer, pray that she is able to start running by Christmas.

Thank you all for your prayers and all your support. I wish you all could see more of her. She is honestly the most wonderful little girl I know. My two biggest joys I get in watching her are going to the store with her and watching her smile and wave to people as she sits in the cart. There is rarely a person she waves at that can refuse to wave back and it isn’t brought to a big smile themselves. The second is watching her and her brother play together (he’s the most wonderful little boy I know). I can’t even describe it except to say it is priceless, that is until he grabs a hold of her hair or she decides to sit on him and then it gets a bit ugly.

Well, must run! Love you all!

Mandy, Lucy, Simon, and Kevin