Saturday

Wednesday we went to the Ortho for a follow up for Fred, turns out it is NOT gout.  They basically wanted him to just "wait" and see if the swelling went down and the pain went away.  Fred persisted and they sent him to an infectious disease Dr.  While giving her the short history, she said, "I know exactly what it is!"  Then she back pedaled a second and said, "Well, it absolutely sounds like Reiter's Disease".  I want to send you to a Rheumetologist.  Thankfully the Rheumetologist was able to see us that day and we went there.  He concurred with the infectious disease doc, and gave Fred 2 weeks of Prednisone and a Month of Doxycycline and ordered several labs.

Thursday he had some improvement and we went to Bible Institute.  After 4 hours there, in the car on the way home he began complaining that the knee was hot, and the foot was swollen again.  No sleep Thursday night.  Friday morning we all dozed on the couch from about 9AM to 11AM then we called the Rheumetologist again.  They were able to fit us in at 2:30.  They did ultrasounds of his knee ankle and foot.  Almost every joint in the foot was surrounded in fluid.  They drew another substantial amount of Mountain Dew colored synovial fluid from his knee again, bumped up the prednisone, sent him for more lab work.  He was advised to stay off it for the weekend.

He is getting discouraged, fearing never being the same again.  Still waiting on the results of Wednesday's lab work.