Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Feeling The Lord Carry Us

Today was one of those days when you just felt the presence of the Lord. I soon knew He had gone ahead and prepared the way with mercy, even in the face of uncertainty.

I took our 6 year old Margaret to Seattle Childrens Hospital today for an appointment with a rheumatologist that we had been referred to by our pediatrician. I had only taken her in to our pediatrician with my concerns last Thursday, but with a positive blood test for Rheumatoid Factor, the doctor quickly contacted Children's specialists to see about getting us in. Normally it takes months to get an appointment, but they had a cancellation today and since we are local, it worked to get us in. Dr. Wallace was able to confirm the Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis that had been suspected. They spent an hour with us, examining Margaret, explaining the disease, treatment and answering any questions that we had. Little did I know that this is the only place in a 5 state area that has this type of specialist and how fortunate we were to get an appointment.

They were so calm and assured that this is treatable, and manageable. I felt such peace. She will begin a course of Prednisone and Methatrexine and an0ther anti-inflammatory like Ibuprofen, but stronger, and a good multivitamin. It was also recommended that we may need to supplement her Calcium and Vitamin D. Margaret has an appointment with an optomologist on Feb. 4 because, strangely enough, this usually also could accompany inflammation in the iris as well. They'll need to check her for this every 6 mo.

For now, I am not projecting out to what the long term implications of this could be, but the more I read the literature that they sent home, the more I cringe. Words like "disability" do not comfort me. I prefer to take this one day at a time and hand it all to the Lord to carry. I have been so encouraged by the sermon series that I have been listening to on Truth For Life. Alistair Begg is an awesome preacher and his series on the life of Joseph and how the Lord prepared him all his life for the role that he would play in saving Isreal is just outstanding. It comforts me to know that all that we face is ultimately for His glory and that He promises us not to give us more than we can handle. I pray that Margaret will come to realize this too as she gets old enough to understand what this may mean for her.

1 comment:

melissa said...

Thanks for sharing this. Our Willa is just the same age and it'll be good for me to remember that. Your Margaret will be prayed for here, that's for sure. Sounds like she's in wonderful care.

Hope to call you in a day or so...!