The Treatment Plan

The MRI showed inflammation of the knee joint and an abnormal collection of fluid within it. It also showed that the pocket of fluid just above the knee was connected to the knee joint. The good news is that it didn't look like the infection had gotten into the bone at all. It looked like it just involves the synovial fluid. The testing of the synovial fluid that was aspirated from her knee showed an elevated white blood cell count. Normal synovial fluid has less than 500 white blood cells per ml. A septic joint has 50,000 to 100,000 WBC. Aliyah's has 35,000. The senior orthopedic specialist, which we found out happens to be her regular orthopedic doctor, has decided that since the inflammation has been going on for nearly two weeks now, that it would be best to treat it as a septic joint. At 7:30am tomorrow morning (Thursday), Aliyah will go into surgery. It will involve making an incision along the side of her knee and washing it out with 10 liters of antibiotic saline. Ten liters! Isn't that wild? This should clear out all of the infected fluid. They will also look carefully at the joint, bone, and surrounding tissues for signs of deterioration/dead tissue. They'll clean out anything that they see at that time. The procedure is called Arthrotomy Irrigation and Debridement. If all goes well and looks good, they will be able to stitch up her knee and get her started on antibiotics. Thanks for keeping Aliyah, our family, and her doctors in your prayers!