Living with Juvenile Arthritis | Update on Aislynn

Living with Juvenile Arthritis | Update on Aislynn

If you’re new to the blog and haven’t been following along with Aislynn’s story, feel free to catch up HERE, HERE, and HERE!

Aislynn was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis (JA) about two months ago, and it was a bit of an uphill battle just to get to that point, but we are happy for a diagnosis, because it meant treatment!

Aislynn began an aggressive medicated treatment shortly after diagnosis, and we are so happy to say that she seems to be responding really well to it! I have especially noticed within the last four to five weeks such a huge change in her energy level, as well as how she has been picking up on so many new things. It’s been really wonderful to watch my girl be so happy again, and I could not be more grateful for her amazing doctor and the treatment plan that she put in place. We certainly have high hopes that our girl will just totally beat this thing and eventually grow out of it, but for now, we are taking it day by day and week by week, and we are just happy and feel blessed to see so many positive changes so far.

Before treatment started, we knew that that the arthritis was affecting her in more ways than one. It did not just affect her swollen joints, but it was affecting her in multiple ways, like developmentally. She had been a bit slower to take on new words in her vocabulary, she wasn’t playing or running around much, and she constantly fought for my attention and wanting to be held. It was frustrating to see, because we weren’t sure if it had to do with JA or something else. Seeing so many great changes in such a short amount of time has definitely eased that frustration and worry, and we are so excited for all of the new changes and developments that are upcoming as she approaches her second birthday, in just over a month. Ahh! I am so not ready for this!

Living with JA has not been the easiest thing, especially because of all of the doctor’s appointments, medication, and Aislynn does still experience pretty bad pain from time to time; just last night, she woke up in the middle of the night and tossed and turned and cried in my arms as, I assume, she was dealing with joint pain and stiffness. It is really hard, as a parent, to watch your child suffer and experience something that you cannot really do much about. Just this week so far, we have had two doctor’s appointments (both with positive results -) yay!), but I know it’s a lot for her to handle, and she just does not understand. She was screened for uveitis, an eye disorder, and the doctor gave her a great report! We will have to keep monitoring for that, as she is at an increased risk for development disorder because of JA.

I just wanted to give a little update on how she has been doing, and thank you again for following along with us and your continued prayers for her to feel better! We appreciate it so much!

xoxo,