My little niece who is being treated for juvenile arthritis is on Prednisone for six months. There's a 50% chance she'll go into remission after that, and I guess a 50% chance that she won't. I hate to see her on it for so long (she's only 4), but she was fading away, prior to the hospitalization and treatment. They pumped her full of steriods for the 8 days she was an inpatient. Now she's just taking a maintenance dose. I used to have to give it to Julia and Chris for their RSV-related bronchiolitis, but just little doses, and usually not for a week at a time.

Lupus is a form of or relative to arthritis, isn't it?

Cindy could contribute a guest essay on How To Run Yourself Over.

I could contribute a guest essay on getting knocked up AND run over.

Actually, I've seen people turn old card catalogs into wine racks -- just take the drawers out completely, and voila! A wine bottle fits perfectly! I so totally want one, but I have no place to put it.

I'd forgotten how potent Buffista enabling is...

Then I'd have to get more wine. Hmmmmmmmm...

Sadly, the wacky worsening weather has caused the cancellation of Monday's MLK Day activities. It's wise, I think, but nonetheless sadmaking.

What makes me sad about the lack of card catalogs is how much you miss. When you slip one of those narrow drawers out and flip through the cards in search of one book, you're introduced to a hundred others.

Indeed. So many happy times at the library, browsing.

Lupus is a form of or relative to arthritis, isn't it?

They're both autoimmune issues.

Lupus is a form of or relative to arthritis, isn't it?

Yep, all part of the autoimmune disease family. (I was briefly misdiagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis before my bloodwork came back and spelled out LUPUS in big flashing neon double-stranded DNA.)

and a lot of her systemic involvement is GI

Oof, that's no fun at all. I'm lucky in that my symptoms were always purely joint-related.

Indeed. So many happy times at the library, browsing.

I think it could be even more fun if you played at card catalog browse at home and turned half of it into a wine rack. Pinot Grigio and pterodactyls!

Lupus is a form of or relative to arthritis, isn't it?

It's an auto-immune disease that works sort of like the opposite of AIDS. Rather than leaving your body open to infection, lupus attacks healthy tissue mistakenly. Your immune system works too well. (At least this is always the way it was explained to me.)

There are different kinds (systemic, discoid, etc.) but there is usually a lot of joint and muscle involvement.

My little niece who is being treated for juvenile arthritis is on Prednisone for six months.

Oh man, the poor little thing. You don't hear much about that, or at least I haven't, but I remember you being worried about why she was lethargic and weak a while ago.

Your immune works too well.

Between the lupus and the allergies, my immune system is just plain paranoid. It's like one of those annoying tiny dogs that bark at leaves and bits of string.

Puppycat was dosing on my old body pillow that I doubled and have right in front of the heater vent so she can be the heat ho she is and also look out the window. Sound asleep. And then twisting and jumping backwards with all of her fur sproinging. For no reason whatsoever.

I think she just channeled Jessica's immune system.