To the hospital we go...

To back up a little... a couple weeks ago we went to Vallejo and when she got out of the car she was limping on her right leg. I thought her hip might of gotten stiff on the long drive. Last Tuesday (April 28th) we took Taylor to the pediatrician in the morning because her right knee was very swollen and she could barely walk on it. The doctor examined her and then decided to admit her to the hospital. We were so worried. So many thoughts were rushing through our minds. After we got admitted on Tuesday morning they did an ultrasound and x rays on her. The x ray showed a little fluid around the knee but not much.
They had to put an I.V in her arm and she didn't even cry !! I cried because I was happy it didn't hurt her very much. I stayed Tuesday night with Taylor while Dan took Emilie home. She was pretty tired of the hospital. Emilie was so sweet she drew a picture for Taylor and couldn't wait to show her. On Wednesday morning they did a bone scan on her. It was done in 2 parts. The first part was to inject the radiolucent fluid through her I.V. and then she had to lay still for a few minutes while they took pictures of that. She did awesome. Later that afternoon she had to go back down and lay still for about 30 minutes. She fell asleep in my arms while down there and then slept through the whole thing. Again, awesome ! We stayed again Wednesday night. On Thursday she had an MRI. She had to go to sleep for this so while she was under anesthesia the Dr. aspirated some fluid from her knee joint. It was bloody and not normal. The MRI also showed alot of swelling in her tissue around her knee. At this point both our Dr.'s are kind of baffled. It didn't seem like there was any kind of infection so they didn't know quite what they were dealing with. The Dr. then decided to take her to surgery Friday morning. He opened her knee about 1 1/2 inches and irrigated it and took a synovial biopsy. It took only about 45 minutes. It's nice working in the O.R. at the same hospital. I was able to take her back to the O.R. and hold her while she went off to sleep. It's a good feeling knowing she wasn't scared and with strangers and I could be there. After surgery the Dr. came out to talk to us. He told us there was no puss and it didn't look like an infection. He mentioned to us that he thought she could have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. After so many days of not knowing what it was it was a little assuring to know that it is something that is treatable and usually goes away before they are teenagers if not sooner. So many thoughts went through our heads on what it could be including cancer and leukemia. Thank God it's not ! So after surgery on Friday we went back up to her room and just hung out. She was pretty tired but not in too much pain. She decided that afternoon that she didn't want her I.V and pulled it out. Luckily they didn't really need it anymore and left it out. The pediatrician came in that afternoon and said what the orthopedic doctor said. She said if the swelling and limping doesn't get better in a couple weeks we will need to go to a pediatric rheumatologist. We don't have any here in Reno so we'll drive to California for that. Anything to get our little girl better. So Saturday morning we were finally discharged and got to go home. She's still sore from the surgery but she is such a trooper. We love our little Taylor and can't wait for her to get better !!!