my diagnosis

the first monday i was home my mom and i went to visit my dear friend, Doctor Vern Cooley. this whole thing with my knees is getting a little ridiculous so when he walked into the room with his assistant the four of us just started to laugh and make jokes about my knees and how this whole ordeal just never seems to end.

we first did x-rays to see how my knee caps were tracking and if there were any problems with that. cooley said that my knee caps are set higher than they should be but it doesn't seem to be causing the problem. he also said that the space between my femur and tibia where my lateral meniscus is missing is getting smaller, but the gap hasn't fully closed yet and so it's not constant bone on bone yet. my legs, however, are extremely swollen and painful to the touch.

cooley's concerns were that if we operated right away with both my legs already being so irritated and swollen it would only cause more problems and pain with all that swelling plus additional swelling from surgery. on top of that concern, there's always been the fact that i'm so young and have had so many surgeries and they've all gone unsuccessful. what's another surgery going to do for me?

the verdict: intense physical therapy for 3 weeks to get down the swelling and see if the problem can be fixed through physical therapy, losing the extra weight i gained from those delicious frijoles and tortillas and not walking  around for 15 hours a day with a 25 pound bag on my shoulder. after those three weeks go back and see if there has been any improvement and if not we'll re-evaluate our surgery options and pray 5 and 2 are the last times i have to go under the knife.

he was also a little upset i didn't get a medical release from him to go on my mission in the first place....whoopsies.

tuesday the 2nd.

oh my goodness this day was so miserable! i drove home from rexburg, idaho. i had been touring the college, byu-idaho, to see if i felt any spiritual direction to my life. {no such luck -- total bummer} on my way home i made some stops to do errands that needed to be done or me or for my mom. there wasn't very much walking involved, but that night when i was laying in bed the pain in my legs was so intense i just started to sob. my mom ran up to my room to see what was wrong. my legs were so swollen and tight with swelling. my skin was gray and hot. my mom couldn't touch me without sending severe pain shooting through my either of my legs. i just laid there crying, "don't touch me! don't touch me! it hurts too bad!" needless to say, my mother is brilliant and started to realize that something else was going on.

we went to the doctor the next day and i started to explain to him everything that's been going on.
-if i walk longer than 20 minutes my legs swell to the point where i feel like it's going to rip my pants
-from my lower back down just aches all the time
-my knees throb. constantly.
-my ankles hurt to move
-my stomach has pains all the time, sometimes to the point where i can't even stand up straight
-my eyes have been strangely swollen (gross i know) and ache
-my fingers and toes get swollen and ache
-my skin is SO sensitive. even more than it usually is
there's more but i'm too tired to write them down. so basically i'm 20 years old and my body is falling apart. great, right?

so the next part gets a little scary. my mom and the doctor started talking about me possibly having MS or Fiber Myalgia. whoa. those are some big scary diseases to be throwing around there. but i was showing all the symptoms.

a terrifying needle prick and 3 viles of blood later we were waiting for answers.

on friday the nurse from the doctors office called and said that the blood results came back fine. i'm counting my blessings. and said that the doctor looked into it more and thinks that i have re-active arthritis.

re-active arthritis very rare and is caused by a bacterial infection in the intestines that causes your whole body to swell and causes severe pain in your lower back, knee and ankle joints.  reactive arthritis lasts for about a year but every case seems to be different, with some people it never fully goes away and others feel fine after making some lifestyle adjustments and with the proper meds.

the swelling explains why i've gained 12 pounds and can't seem to shed a pound. and it also explains why i'm constantly in some sort of pain. so now we are left to find a specialist to do more blood work and x-rays and find out what bacteria i have that's causing all of this and what we can do to lessen my pain.

we're guessing i got the bacteria my 2nd week in the CCM when i got extremely ill, but we don't really know anything for sure yet. fingers crossed we'll be able to get into a specialist soon and get some more answers!!

but on the bright side, the pain in my knees could possibly just be coming from the arthritis and they could be perfectly fine on the inside, which possibly means . . . NO SURGERY!!! :D  so we'll go see cooley again on the 18th and see what he has to say about everything. we're guessing we'll need to solve this other problem before we will really know what's going on with my knees, so fingers crossed we'll just avoid surgery all together.

being in pain all day and hardly being able to do anything has been zero fun whatsoever, but i'm so grateful that we are getting answers and finding out what we can do to get this pain in the past. i'm also grateful i do have other aspects of my health that are still good and i'm extremely grateful for my mom who is doing everything she can to help me and has been putting up with me and all of my tears from the pain and meltdowns because none of my clothes fit right and i feel fat all the time and that she'll sit down next to me in the middle of the isle at the grocery store simply because i can't walk anymore and need to sit down. the Lord truly has blessed me with so many things and i cannot thank Him enough.