Hey Everyone
Just wanted to let everyone know what took place yesterday at my daughter's appt. So many have expressed care and much appreciated concern. Thank you!
We saw a very good doc yesterday and i'm really pleased in how she's handling things. As u may know/remember, Sally was sick with pnumonia some time back. In fact she started to complain with pain in her joints and stiffness in the same places about two days before being dx'd with pnumonia. That said, the doc said she thinks she in fact may have jr. ra, BUT the pnumonia may have caused the test to give false results and, thus, lead us to her (meaning no ra). She did find some arthritis in her knees as a certainty, but is it elsewhere? Not sure yet. The course of action she decided on was to send us home with pain med (naproxsen) to use for two months. I'm to keep her on and off it in an attempt to see the way the pain responds to the med. In other words, if she is ok without the med after some time of being off it (giving enuf time for a flare to occur) then quite possibly she doesn't have ra. If she 'needs' it and doesn't seem to be able to do without it, them it's more likely ra. Along with that little experiement she's going to retest her in two months. That should give enuf time for the pnumonia to NOT affect the results. So she feels those two things together with her exam, findings of arthritis in the knees and stiffness and pain in the morns or after long periods of rest will yield the dx. Cross u'r fingers, send up prayers and keep good thoughts of her please. Altho i know much worse could be looming over her, this is enuf to worry and scare us. No one wants to see their child hurt. Thanks so much to everyone for taking time to follow this and help me.
rhonda