Great Doctor's Appointment

Allison had a great Dr. appt. today in Portland. He could find no evidence of active arthritis going on and from how she has been feeling it looks like the medication is working for her. We now are going to try to wean her off the prednisone. She is currently taking 20 mg daily and we want to try and get her down to 10 mg before her next appt. in September. Since she isn't having any joint pain or swelling we are also going to try weaning her down from the Aleve she is currently taking to give her stomach a break, if she will tolerate it. She is still taking Methotrexate and we will up her dose a bit this next week and then hold and see how it works for her until the next appt.

We will have to monitor Allison closely and watch for warning signs like break through fevers, rashes, morning stiffness and joint pain. If those begin to occur we will have to back off the tapering of her medications. It is a guess and check game with her medication right now.

At the conference we learned that 50% of Systemic JRA kids out grow this disease during the first year. Dr. Kingsbury said his experience is usually 2/3 's out grow the disease in 2 years. Our hope and prayer is that Allison would be one of those. Right now we are cautiously optimistic about her out come and how she is doing.

We so appreciate your good thoughts and prayers during the last 6 months. They have helped to get us to where we are today. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we see how Allison's body tolerates tapering from these medications that have helped to make her feel so good.

Leslie

**Allison was also thrilled because she did not have to have bloodwork today. Dr. Kingsbury wrote standing orders for her to have her bloodwork done at our local doctor's office which Allison feels most comfortable with. A blessing for her.