Biologics | Biologic Response Modifiers | Arthritis Today Drug Guide

Biologics | Biologic Response Modifiers | Arthritis Today Drug Guide

Shared via AddThis

Wow what a difference a year makes!

These pics were taken about a year apart. Last year during Jacob's arthritis flare up he was losing weight like crazy. He lost maybe 10 pounds. I think he had went down to about 58 pds. This summer, flare free, he is up to about 75 pounds!! HE is feeling great and continues to do very well.

Bug bites part 2

Jacob went back to the rheumatologist last Thursday, but I forgot to post about it! His mosquito bites were still not healed yet. They were looking better, but not gone. His lymphnodes were still pretty large. The doctor still didn't want to put him back on his arthritis meds yet. The plan is to continue the antibiotics for the remainder of the ten days, and to email her a picture of his knee this Thursday. The doctor wants to be sure his knee is free of any infection before restarting. The end of this week it will be three weeks since he has had the MTX and the Humira. We are risking a flare up in the hopes that his body can fight off the infection. The medications as you know are immune suppressants.

I will be very curious to see what his eye exam shows when we return there in a few weeks.

bugs bites and infection

Today we had an appointment with Jacob's rheumatologist and Orthopedic. It was good timing because we had another issue come up over the weekend. About a week ago Jacob had got about 7 mosquito bites around his knee. They were really itchy throughout the week. By about Friday they started to look infected. Was this because of his immune supression? I decided to hold off on the his Methotrexate because they were starting to look really bad. By Saturday and Sunday the area around a couple of the bites got very red and hot. His entire knee seemed to be swollen. The rheumatologist thinks it is a staph infection. She put him on a antibiotic and wants me to watch it closely. He is not to get any of his meds until this clears. We want his immune system to fight off this infection. She wants to see him back on Thursday. Jacob is in a lot of pain tonight and was actually saying he feels like it is his arthritis. His knee is stiff. He was begging me to give him his shot. Being 10, he cannot understand why I am not giving him the medicine to help his arthritis. I am hoping we can restart the meds soon. Without them we are risking a flare.

We saw the orthopedic today for the 6 month follow-up of the scoliosis. Jacob had his back xrayed again. The curvature of his spine has increased by about 3 degrees the doctor said. He still thinks it is in a "acceptable" range. I have to say, when I saw the xray it looked like a HUGE curve!! We are to return in 6 months to rexray the spine. He is also going to xray his legs to check the leg length discrepancy also.

This picture I just took yesterday of his knees. You can see the bites. The redness is difficult to see at this angle. The left knee is the swollen one. You can't see any definition of his left knee cap.