Allow us to introduce ourselves...

Welcome to the chaos we will call our blog!

Creating a blog is something that has been talked about and the idea tossed around for almost a year now but no work has been done toward making it a reality. This is the first step... now to see how well we can make it work for us.

"Us" would actually be myself, aka Grammie, and my sidekick... my five yr old granddaughter Arya.

Arya and Bullet when the front yard flooded.

She can be a wild gypsy looking child at times...lol The front yard became a new adventure when heavy rains left a river running through it for she and the dog to explore at length.

She was telling me she wanted to be a water fairy.

She splashed and played until the water started to go away... that was when the ants came back out! Sadly the adventure ended with her having fifteen ant bites all over her body.

 Some might wonder why would we even bother with a blog... why would anyone be interested in us? 

This is not as much for "others" as much as it is for ourselves and our friends who are interested in our projects and also Arya's condition and progress. 

Near the end of last summer I noticed a swelling in one of her fingers...

 I waited a week or so to see if she had jammed it or sprained it.... even though she never complained with it or about it. The only time she said it was uncomfortable was if you squeezed it from the sides... top to bottom zero complaints.

August started the Dr. visits... First pediatrician then on to the orthopedists. This started us on the first round of super mild meds and waiting.

By the time Novemeber got here we only had some whispered ideas... Then Thanksgiving day we had our usual massive dinner with all the family and even our extended family of my ex husband and those of his family who wanted to come.
  

That night her Paw Paw called me very worried... her right ankle had suddenly blown up dramatically and was extremely painful. 

I knew right then what the official diagnosis would be.

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis... This was confirmed a few days before Christmas 2012.

It is now June 2013... We are on to another stronger and scarier drug, at least for us it is since we are new to this. The finger is still swollen, the ankle has lost roughly 40 to 50% of the total mobility and flexibility. We now also have the left knee involved.

This has made us all the more determined to enjoy life and get the most out of it!! This blog is a small way of our sharing it with others... enjoy.