Doctor's Orders (Before and After)

On Thursday we took Katie back to UCSF for her knee injections.

(Side note - I've been writing "corticosteroid" injections because that's what the doc calls them, and others have said "cortisone" injections. Confused, I asked the doctor if they are the same thing - they are! That's good, cuz it's I like spelling smaller words...)

First thing they do is put a numbing cream on her knees and let is sit for 20 minutes. Then both of her doctors come in - Dr. Curran, a fellow in pediatric rheumatology and Dr. Milojevic, the attending. They prep Katie, telling her just what is going to happen, so there are no surprises. Katie hardly flinched - only when they first poked her. They had to move the needle around a bit to get the medicine well into the joints. After it was all over she said,

"It didn't hurt."

The doctors were amazed at her calmness. Well, for a kid that had a displaced fracture in her arm two years ago, this was nothing for her. She has a high pain tolerance. When she had to have surgery to pin her bones back together, she never took any pain medicine in recovery, because she said it "doesn't hurt."

Wow.

Our expectations were that, after the injections, we would visit the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park, since on our previous Monday visit it was closed. However, after the injections the doc says, "Katie, we don't want you to do much walking. We want the medicine to stay in the joint where we just put it, not leak out. That way it is most effective. So, veg out in front of the TV or something."

Poof!! There went our plans to wander the Conservatory that day.

Of course, Katie was pleased with Doctor's Orders, as this meant her sister would do her bidding - to a degree. Heh.

She still has to take twice daily doses of Naprosyn. But, the kid will not swallow a pill. Her little sister can take any kind of pill - and loves to rub that fact in with her big sister. No, Katie has to gag every time. So her Naprosyn comes in liquid form, and it gets flavored. We are encouraging her to practice pill-taking with Tic-Tacs. Lately she has not liked the liquid medicine so much, so she is getting a bit more motivated to take pills instead. It's only a matter of time...

Here's what her knees looked like before the injections, and after: