Illness and Flares

Unfortunately Mackenzie has caught the stomach flu.  Poor kid was up at least six times during the night and is still miserable today.  To add to her upset shehad to miss her favorite thing…school and the cherry on top, it’s Girl Scout Day and she is going to miss her Girl Scout meeting.  She is one very unhappy little girl today.  Hopefully this is a quick moving “bug” and leaves just as quick as it arrived.

To add to her not feeling well and missing out on her favorite activities she is also unfortunately experiencing a flare in her arthritis.  This is a part of this awful disease that she will most likely be burdened with for the rest of her life even if she achieves remission.  The flares occur even when the disease is under control or in remission because her immune system is working extra hard to fight the virus she is currently affected with.  Arthritis is an auto immune disease in which her immune system attacks her joints as if they were a virus or foreign element within her body that should be eliminated.  So any time she catches a cold or any other type of virus or illness and her immune system ramps up to fight the infection it also tends to go back and disrupt her joints as well.  It’s a vicious disease and a vicious cycle that she will most likely not outgrow.

Hopefully this is a short term set back and she will be back up on her feet again soon.  She is due her next injection of Enbrel this Saturday so we have to get her feeling better so she can get it.