Post 2: Joint injections & worried parents

Next up for Eve, after the whirlwind of her diagnosis, was a visit to Crosshouse Hospital to meet her new rheumatology team. I cannot express how amazing Dr Oates and her staff were during the entire time Eve was under their care. This was also when we learned of the wonderful charity SNAC (Scottish Network for Arthritis in Children) which was founded to raise awareness of and to provide support for children with arthritis. Early on, it is easy to believe that your family is the only one in the world going through this, but SNAC's social media platforms and family events help you realise you're not alone, which is comforting.

Eve’s treatment began with a trip to the Royal Hospital for Children & Young People in Edinburgh to get steroid injections in her affected joints. We had to make the decision whether she would receive these under a general or local anaesthetic. We thought that it would be best if she was asleep to reduce her stress, but I'll be honest—this scared the living daylights out of me!

The image below, which was taken right before she received her joint injections, shows how swollen and sore her left hand had become, and illustrates why she referred to her left index finger as her "fat finger."

Hands of a JIA sufferer with numbing cream applied

Back then, Eve hated being left alone and had made me promise I would stay with her but I knew fine well that wouldn’t be possible. I’ll never forget as the anaesthetic took effect and her eye’s rolled close, they told her Mum and I that we could leave the room. However, as we walked away Eve’s eyes sprung open for a second, and that broke my heart to realise that she had seen me breaking my promise to her. Kay and I had to endure an agonizing wait while Eve had steroid injections in her left hand's knuckles, left wrist, left knee, and left ankle. However, we needn’t have worried, as when we were finally invited down to the ward to see her again, there she was sat up in bed with a huge smile across her face while chatting away with a hospital porter.……..what an absolute warrior!!