How is everyone?

I know it is a busy time of year but I wanted to check in and see how everyone is doing? We are doing great! We've had a few checkups lately. We are still on our MTX injections, weekly. It will probably be the new year before they start backing the girls off the medication. Unfortunately they still have some lesions that haven't cleared.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving .... Happy Holidays to all!

Chris

New Member of the Morris Family

Hi Everyone! I hope you are doing well.

Katelyn is fighting a sinus and ear infection. This is the 3rd in two months. The Dr's are waiting for some tests to come back. We will go on Monday evening to get the results. I'm figuring between her allergies and her MTX imune supression, this was bound to happen.

Katelyn has been great though! I wouldn't have known she actually had this infection, had I not called because of her chronically runny nose. She hasn't complained one bit.

Anyway .... we got a new Puppy! I have had my eye on him for months. He's a 5 month old Miniature Schnauzer puppy. He's just the sweetest thing. The girls are so happy, it may be one of the best things I could have done for them. Katelyn jumps out of bed every morning (ok almost every morning) ready to walk "Scruffy".

I hope everyone is doing well! We had to share our newest member of our family!

The Morris Girls

Hi Everyone! I can't seem to get the girls to slow down lately! They are doing well and really miss their PS friends! Between school and Dance, they have little down time. Katelyn does Ballet two days a week, she really loves lyrical ballet. That's interesting to see for a girl who's so full of energy! She just joined a Detective Club at school and started swimming with her 3rd grade class. Ooh, did I mention she has Brownies once a week too! :-) Carly does tap/ballet 1 once a week, along with Daisy Girl Scouts. She loves kindergarten and all her new friends.

We traveled to CHOP this week (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) for Katelyn. She is in a ADD study and had a check up. She is doing really well. Tuesday we head back to check up on our Psoriasis. They look great and have continued the Methotrexate injections. Tuesday I think we will have blood work and start lowering the dose to back them off the MTX. WISH US LUCK!

I hope everyone is have a great time at school and doing well with their psoriasis ....

Benjamin's P

Hi all. It's been way to long since I've visited here, so I figured I owed at least a little post. Thanks Liza for steering me!

Benjamin is well into the school year and is having a great year. His goal this year was to have perfect attendance. I thought it quite lofty given his P flare ups, drs appts, etc, but he really wanted to try. Unfortunately, yesterday that plan was derailed! And not from P! Ben has been home for two days now with a fever and vomitting. Nothing seems to want to stay down. We saw his pediatrician yesterday and to my disgust, he basically did nothing. So here we sit in bed, still fighting this bug, but well enough to play xbox!

Benjamin is also busy in soccer this fall. His team hasn't been doing so great, but he is enjoying every minute of it. He actually scored his teams first goal last week and is still in heaven. His older brothers are in fall baseball, so our weekends are filled with sporting events.

Benjamin's P: As many of you know, Benjamin has had pretty severe psoriasis, but never has been on any biologics. He has been lucky enough that his P has only effected him from the neck down. Though most of his skin is currently clear, he does have a few small spots that worry me. Those small spots usually mean more is on the way. Usually the summer clears him up quite a bit and by this time in fall he is covered again. We are very lucky this year that things are still good. I am attributing this to Barney's formula. Ben has been on Barney's since the end of August, and though we've missed a day here and there, I really believe that this is what is keeping him well. We shall see....always the pesimist, I'm just waiting to wake up one morning and see him covered again!

We hope that everyone is enjoy the fall weather (it went from high 80's to 50's overnight here) and having a healthy begining of the new school year. We look forward to hearing from everyone.

Hi from KATE

Hey guies I`ve missed you all. School is great so far I`ve gotten good grades. I also got into chorus.

Sorry I'm Late!!!

Hey guys!!! I have been so busy since we got back from Florida. Spent part of one week in Philadelphia for the FHA Conference, then spent part of the next week in DC giving training to FBI and FDIC/OIG Agents in Mortgage Fraud. Last week I had to get as much sewing done as possible for my quilt club.

Did I ever mention I get distracted?

Anyway, I still don't have the pictures developed from Orlando. I get paid next week so I PROMISE to get them developed and post some of Kate. She is at school right now, but I will let her get on and say "hi" when she gets home.

Kate finished up three more badges for Girl Scouts and I already put them on her vest. She and her daddy had a really great time at the Father-Daughter campout the other weekend. She got to take apart owl pellets and find out how many voles the owl ate by looking for bones!!! She made a parachute for a water rocket made out of a 2-liter soda bottle and she made an owl house (it's a LOT bigger than a bird house). We are going to have to take that out to her grandparents house where they have a lot of trees and woods. If we get a owl to live in it we will let everyone know what kind!!!

Kate's brother William is home with a cold - not strep throat, thank heavens. And I am making chicken soup from scratch. Got a lot of rain yesterday from what was left of Ike but it cooled down a lot. Now it feels like fall.

Is everyone in Texas ok? I hope the worst part of the hurricane missed you.

I feel so sorry for Emily. That is really rough with current breakouts and bleeding. Kate does really well with her Enbrel shots. Since we got on those consistently she keeps getting better and better. Now she has only a few scabs on her knees and elbows. They are barely noticable.

For her body, try getting some of the AXE body wash. It has volcanic rock emulsion and soothes Kate when she gets ichy. The Touch and Pheonix scents are pretty nice for girls. I don't know what to tell you about the scalp. I have used Clobex on Kate's before. One or two drops on each open spot. It stings some. But then, her scalp really didn't start getting better until she was on the Enbrel. I know it is tough to go through this, but tell Emily that we have all been there. And Kate and I send her really big hugs!!!!

Gluten-free

Hi, Jake. I just read your post. If Emily was still awake I'd have her write something. We miss all of you guys.

We've been having a tough go of things lately. Emily went back on Cyclosporine a few weeks ago. This time it hasn't been helping at all, in fact the disease is progressing as rapidly as ever. Her scalp is almost always bleeding in one spot or another. We filled a new prescription (thinking maybe the one we were using was ineffective because it's a few months old). This time we got the generic brand. It's horrible. Even though the old brand was "yucky," Emily still took it without any trouble. Today she was in tears before I ever got the medicine ready. She says that this generic one burns her throat on the way down. Our doctor is out of the country right now. We hoped to be able to talk to him about other options.

I talked to his assistant about MTX. She assured me that there is a pill form. Can any of you tell me (if you know) any advantages/disadvantages to shots over pills?

And while I'm posting questions: Christine, you mentioned the gluten-free diet. Was that helpful at all? You also mentioned that Carly was showing signs of psoriatic arthritis. Do you know if the arthritis can cause permanent damage? Emily has been showing signs. I don't know how long I should wait to see if the medication is effective, or if we need to demand a more effective treatment option immediately.