Patience

Yesterday Caroline had her follow up appointment with the rheumatologist and all is good. Her blood work has returned to normal, there is no fluid remaining in her joints and she is pain free. In the next few weeks we will take her slowly off the Aleve monitoring for any returning pain but none is expected. Caroline will need to remain on penicillin for the foreseeable future as any recurrence of post strep reactive arthritis can result in cardiac complications or rheumatoid arthritis. All that being said though, all truly is good.

Caroline had been a wreak for the past few days. The rheumatologist has scared her from the start. In the beginning, the doctor took a really serious tone with us, using lots of big and worrisome medical terminology. Caroline, being so attentive, didn't miss a word of it. While few of the words meant anything to her, she knew they weren't happy phrases. With each of our follow up appointments, she's been concerned that the doctor would start talking again about new and bad things.

During the past few days I wasn't able to move far without Caroline appearing beside me. I couldn't sit down or make phone calls or read. I was constantly reassuring Caroline, "It will be fine, really." This time wasn't much different from many others I've had over the years. Raising an anxious little girl in not an easy journey. What was different this time though was what Caroline said to me when we got home from the doctor.

"Mommy, thank you for being so patient with me."

And that is really all a mom ever needs to hear.