Bella is struggling.......

Juggling life with a kid that has a chronic illness has become quite a task for us. There are so many ups and downs and you are never prepared. Just as you think you have it all figured out, there is a wrench thrown into the plans. Just as I think Bella is doing great emotionally, we get knocked down by a moment of anger/sadness.
As many of you know, Bella is one tough cookie. She doesn't like to show her pain or let anyone know she is upset...EVER! At home we see her frustration/sadness via angry out lashes.
Usually aimed at me, which is really hard some days. I don't allow her to mistreat me because she has Juvenile Arthritis and I stand strong against her angry fits. But when she is done having her meltdown I know we need to talk because this is a sign of frustration from Bella.
If you are on Facebook, you have seen my posts about Bella being sick for the past 2 weeks on and off. It is hard because if she is sick they have to take her off of her MTX injection and that is the medicine that helps control the pain/inflammation. The injections already weaken her immune system so we can't give it to her until she is back to 100% health. So, not only is she feeling sick, now she is back in pain ALL the time again. Plus, her psoriasis starts to flare up as well.
I was waiting for Bella to notice her "puffy" face (her words), that Dan and I noticed a few weeks ago.

Left is current/Right is 6 months ago

It is one of the sad side effects of using steroids to help treat her JA symptoms, facial swelling. Bella is what we call a fashion diva because she loves to dress up, do her hair, and look cute all the time. I knew it was a matter of time before she noticed this change. Boy, did she notice on one of the worst days ever. Her swelling made her lips look(amazing in my book) and her face was very full and flush. Let's just say it did not go over well when she said it out loud and made it a realization.
Last night she totally freaked, which meant Bella verbally went off on me. I should be flattered because kids only mistreat the ones they really love because they know they will keep loving them.
It was a mountain of emotions charging through our house last night. Sorry to anyone walking through our town, you probably heard us yelling at each other...ha ha!!
So on Thursday when we meet with her Rheumatologist we will discuss changing the medicine(which was already brought to the table last visit) and hopefully start her on another injection called Enbrel. Enbrel is supposed to be an amazing medicine for people with arthritis and Bella is finally accepting this path (she refused the idea at the last appt). Keeping my fingers crossed that we get her on the right medicine, therapy, and diet to help get her into remission.