Hospital

Brendon is having a hernia op on the 25th and so he had to see a doctor in town today as the "pre-op check" - so he had taken the day off and we spent the whole day in town. We had some shopping to do and then we headed over to Orana Wildlife park again. The girls really enjoyed it last time and so they are excited to go again.

Unfortunately Ruth's fingers have been swollen again (and for 2 weeks already). Last year all that was discovered with all the tests done (which started with the swollen fingers) was that her iron levels were low. So when I chatted to the doc earlier in the week and he agreed we may as well check how her iron levels are doing. I also phoned the specialist she saw last year because he had not actually seen the swollen fingers by the time we saw him. He said we could bring her in this morning for him to see.

One of the ladies at Ballet on Tuesday suggested that it may be related to the cold weather. The specialist does not think it is the cause, although it may have triggered it. So on that note we have been making an effort to keep her warmer. She has been wearing her beanie all day every day since I chatted to a Mom at Ballet. She suggested we get as many woolen clothing items as we can. And 100% wool. She even posted us a beautiful cardigan that her daughter had grown out of and Ruth has been wearing that almost every day (and sleeping in it too). I have also bought her some 100% Merino wool tops and they will arrive in the post soon. Merino wool is so nice because it is really light weight but supa warm. So I think those tops will be well used this winter.

Back to the fingers. It's all government services that we are getting with this and so are very impressed that I could phone yesterday and see the doc today (and it's all free). He was again so friendly and was glad I had brought her to show the fingers. Amazingly (God is so good) he specializes in joints (and other things) and so has a whole lot of ideas of what to test for. They did test for a lot of things before (like juvenile arthritis) but now he had a few other ideas.For now he has given her a script for anti-inflammatory (again all free) that she will be on for the next 6 weeks (children's ones that are easier on the tummy but not as strong as others so she has to have 3 times a day) and he is hoping that will get rid of the inflammation completely. He said if the swelling continues it could cause damage to the joints and so we need to get the swelling down.

This was also such a blessing as I had not felt happy about her fingers being swollen for 2 weeks and longer and it was so nice to have a doctor say "we must do something". Not just a mother's over concern. :-) If these meds don't control the swelling then we have to contact him so that we can look at other options. So I felt really cared for and he was just so good with Ruth and he was so impressed with her co-operation. Moving all the parts of her body to check how the other joints were doing - following instructions of where to move her arms and how to move her hands and fingers - it made me very proud all the compliments he was giving on how good she was. :-)

And then she was again just an amazing star with giving blood. Afterwards she told me it did hurt when the "pin" went in, but she did not even flinch or complain. She was so brave and such a star. So we will wait and see. At least we know she is again on their files (she had been taken off when things settled last year) and they will follow up with us over the months ahead. It's nice once you feel like the ball is rolling in finding out what is happening, even if you don't have all the answers straight away. So that's helpful. And I pray the meds help her fingers soon.