Hi.

My husband's niece is 9 years old. She had strep in August. She was of course given a course of antibiotics which she took. After the treatment, they all went on a vacation and the day the plane landed, the little girl exclaimed "my knee, my knee" so they took her to the hospital which could find nothing wrong and she was sent home.

The next day she was in such pain, they took her back and she was admitted. They did a strep culture and it was positive so they immediately thought "Oh, this is a reactive arthritis (which had spred to her hip), and they began giving her morphine for the pain and strong arthritis meds and they took blood work.

Two days later the pain was worse and it has been decided that because of the results of the blood work, she does not have any Reactive arthritis going on in her body.

Took her off of morphine and put her on something else and she did not get better.

Yesterday she can NOT get out of bed, (meaning, she can't stand on her legs) and the day before she WAS able to straighten her legs while lying in the bed (I gather she was not able to do this previously)

So I asked a relative the following:

What do the doctors think she has, if it's not arthritis (and the doctor said NO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HER HAVING STREP)

I was told the doctor said "

She has a virus

My husband immediately said "OH MY GOD, my mother had Guillian Barre many yeas ago and she could not walk and she was in pain"

I related this info to the relative and said "you never thought of this link?" and she said: "No," and she said she would tell them this and run it by the doctor.

Also, the father of this little girl, well his sister has a bad case of MS and has been wheelchair bound for years.

If anyone can tell by the symptoms I have provided what they think is going on in this child's body, I would appreciate it.

Thanks much

I have no other info to give. Just what I wrote.

Thanks much

This is really confusing, and I bet the doctors are stumped.

But I think it is impossible to make guesses with so little information available to us on the net.

There are people who develop reactions to penicillin up to 15 days later. But that is not common.

Hi. Just spoke to the grandmother. The child was able to turn over in the bed and the child's mother was able to give her a shower in the bed. Everyone got wet of course. They are trying to keep their spirits up.

The mother confided to one of the doctors (when they were trying to diagnose her and came up stumped as you said), the mother said: 'I think I need a Dr. House on this diagnosis" She laughed while saying this.

The doctor DID NOT LIKE IT!!!

Wow.

Anyway, will update with any new symptoms or whatever comes up.

thanks very much Mrs. D

Melody

GBS frequently occurs after an infection. I know I experienced sharp pains along with the weakness when I had it as a child. It can easily be tested for with a lumbar puncture. At least they would know if it was GBS or not.

I was in the hospital for almost a week before the docs decided to do a LP and came up with my diagnosis.

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Hi:

Yes, I know about the lumbar puncture. I just got an update. Her knees are still swollen, her hip hurts, but she is able to stand for short times, and take little steps.

The family knows about the link to GBS now. Whether they inform the doctors that are consulting, well I have no idea.

Somebody better do SOMETHING. This kid is only 9 years old.

Thanks VERY much

Melody

GBS is not likely to cause swollen joints.

Rheumatoid arthritis does not always have good testing success.
I had it done twice over the years, and my doctor said false negatives are quite common. As the disorder progresses, the
immune factors may become evident later.

This sounds like an autoimmune disorder. Arthritis like this can come from Lyme disease and also some vaccines.

Strep can attack joints too. So I am thinking the doctors will explore these options.

She has been tested for Lyme and it came back negative.

I agree, it just might be an autoimmune thing.

I wonder if this might be an allergic reaction to the antibiotics she was given while she had the strep (back in August)??

thanks much

Melody

It is always possible it is a delayed allergic response.
Penicillins typically can do this...stimulate the allergic responses, after the drug is discontinued.

Also some infectious arthritis type things happen because of the type of infection.

In a person with genetic gout... when white cells die off after infection they dump purines into the blood and can set off gout attacks. This is not typical in children, but theoretically possible.
They can test for gout with blood work. The only children I've seen with this were on chemo for leukemias, etc. When those millions of white cells die from the chemo they dump the uric acid into the blood stream even in children. This is called secondary gout and usually resolves when the purine blast is over.

Lyme titers come back negative, because they abort the immune response when they treat with antibiotics. If they treated prior to the titer being drawn, and the antibody titer had not reached the levels required to call it positive, it is possible to have Lyme and for the test to be negative. It happened to me. Fortunately, I had the bite and EM rash, and a titer just below the cut off.

I would wonder where she was when on vacation?

Hi, well we just got word that she's been sent home on crutches and will be going to physical therapy. I don't think they want to hear too much from anyone. They are a very private bunch. I'm lucky that I found out what I found out. She is back on antibiotics and she is currently on prednisone.

That's all I know.

And I really do thank you for all your good info.

Now if the doctor told the parents that he thought it was a virus, why on earth is she on antibiotics?

Curious, no??

Melody