Way OT: My daughter has strep, rash and now joint pain, I'm starting to panic.

[pennymom]

When DS gets strep, he almost always has just a rash without a fever or sore throat. No advice here, but follow those mom instincts, OP!

Really strange that another poster had a child who got HSP. My oldest had it also and I've never met anyone else who got it. It was very scary for us because she hemmorhaged and would bruise wherever we touched her.

I had HSP as a teen, and never knew until years later how scared my parents were. Also, a few weeks ago I was watching a rerun of a House episode, and the patient had HSP. I never realized until then just how dangerous it can be.

 

[ssawka]

Skip the doctor and take her to an Urgent Care. May cost you a little more in co-pay, but it would be worth it.

Also, don't research symptoms on the Internet. It will just cause unnecessary paranoia as many symptoms can be caused by many ailments. Take her to another doctor.

 

[dreamin_disney]

my first thought is she might be having a allergic reaction to the amoxocillin. I use to take amoxocillin until age 20. All of a sudden I was allergic to it hives, itchy and felt like my throat was slowlu closing- tight feeling. Dr. said it was an allergic reacxtion. one minute you can take it then all of a sudden your body is allergic. Same thing happened to niece and my mother-weird. My favorite antibotic now is the Z-pack its a 5 day dose.

Now, I still think you need to take dd in ASAP. Like i tell my dd with health insurance there no need for her to suffer and it sounds like your dd needs some relief. Hope they help her feel better.

 

[GoofyGolferGirl]

I second that you know your child better than anyone and you are worried so I would take her to the doctor. Keep us updated and good luck!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Skip the doctor and take her to an Urgent Care. May cost you a little more in co-pay, but it would be worth it.

Also, don't research symptoms on the Internet. It will just cause unnecessary paranoia as many symptoms can be caused by many ailments. Take her to another doctor.

I disagree w/ the urgent care center. You need to see a pediatrician. Docs in the ER and urgent care are not specialized to kids and frequently miss things. I tell you this b/c I am a peds RN and I receive their patients up on the floor all the time!

 

[BabyTigger99]

JRA was my first thought as well. I had a VERY severe case of it. I did get the rash with mine as well. Does it feel better for your daughter to have warm water running on her ankle?? That was the only thing that would soothe me before I was diagnosed.

 

[bnhasak]

HSP (henoch schoeline purpura) is always suspect after viral illness and presenting with pin-point rash (petechiae), joint pain, stomach pain, etc...

The best test is a punch skin biopsy as well as blood work to look for an elevated sedimentation rate.

As said before it is usually self limited and mild but it CAN cause renal/kidney issues and your child would need urinalysis during and after the illness to make sure she isn't having problems. It would show up as usually microscopic blood (usually invisible) and protein which again would only show up on analysis.

HSP in kids is usually pretty mild and fully recoverable without much treatment. At most usually it is some steroids or pain relievers. I had it as an adult and it left me with some residual kidney damage but still I am healthy now and all my tests are clear at this point.

Good luck and wishing her well whatever it ends up being. I say always go with your maternal instincts if you suspect something is up.

Also, strep can cause a lot of those symptoms even when the typical strep symptoms have cleared up. DH had strep a lot as a kid and ended up with symptoms similar and had some kidney issues as well. He fully recovered and is healthy as anything now too.

 

[MomRN]

We just recently dealt with this... ds 4 broke out with a wide spread rash, diagnosed with Scarlet Fever (strep) with no other symptoms. According to my ped, Scarlet Fever is worse in skin folds (particularly the groin) and spares the face except the area around the mouth will be pale and the cheeks will appear flushed. Oh...and the rash almost feels like sandpaper.

I'm so NOT a peds RN, and kids disorders perplex me. I cannot even tell the difference between pink eye and eye irritation. So, I'm not aware of these other disease other posters have mentioned, just what my ped told me about my ds.

 

[ssawka]

I disagree w/ the urgent care center. You need to see a pediatrician. Docs in the ER and urgent care are not specialized to kids and frequently miss things. I tell you this b/c I am a peds RN and I receive their patients up on the floor all the time!

Yes, but the OP said that her Dr. is brushing her off. If it is Strep, her DD needs to get on a different antibiotic. Does she really have time to shop around for another Dr? Under normal circumstances I would agree with you, but right now she needs to get her DD well and then she can deal with finding a different Dr.

 

[moopdog]

Here's a weird outcome, ironically my DD just so happened to have a appt to have her orthopedic doc to have her inserts resized today so I decided to hold off until that appt. at 10:00 She doesn't have foot pain with her foot problem BTW in case anyone was wondering - that was never on the table for me.

Her podiatrist was so great, he listened to the whole thing and examined her and even though he is not a general practice doc, he said that he feels that she really did/is allergic to the medicine, hence the rash. He also feels like her joint pain is related to sleeping funny with her skin discomfort. This one, I'm on the fence about, but we'll see.

He taped her foot to make it more comfortable for her and said if she is still in pain two days from now go back to her doctor. To the person who mentioned the cellulitis - OMG - it looked SO much like cellulitis (which I deal with on a regular basis at my job) that I can't believe I didn't think of that. I guess I didn't realize it could come from Strep. If that particular area gets like that again I will go straight to the ER for treatment. But....does that mean since the flare up went away that it "wasn't" cellulitis at all?

I will update in a few days if there's anything to update. So far I'm just kind of waiting....

 

[.snow.white.]

I would call your primary doctor back and ask if she should be checked for synovitis. Because more than one joint is compromised it sounds like what we call in my daughter her "viral hangover". She's four, and when she has any type of virus or bacterial illness, she often experiences joint pain in the days following. Sometimes it's been manageable with motrin, twice it has required hospital treatment. An elevated sed rate would indicate inflammation of the synovial fluid; if it responds to anti-inflammatories it doesn't require more invasive treatment.

Multiple joints seems too coincidental. Ortho's diagnosis seems too convenient. It took us a while to track this down and it was an alert nurse that suggested it and caught it.

Hope she's feeling better soon.

 

[brittsmum1998]

My sister (adult) had a reaction a few yrs ago to amox . She had TONS of joint pains along w/ the rash. It lasted a couple weeks and then went away. She can never have "cillin" antibiotics again.

I, many yrs ago (in my teens) had a reaction to meds (not antibibiotics) which caused joint pain for a couple of weeks also. I'll never forget it because I had to miss a Springsteen concert w/ my boyfriend because I couldn't walk. The pain travelled up one side of my body and down the other. I never had it again after that.

I wish you luck with your baby and it sounds like you have it under control.

 

[.snow.white.]

At least once it occurred simultaneous to a SEVERE rash on her upper thighs. It was the most God-awful thing I've ever seen, actually looked like giant hives that deteriorated into what looked like dark purple bruising. This later lead to a concern that it might be an allergic synovitis, hence the migrating joint pain. It was ruled out by an allergist. After ruling out juvenile arthritis, allergy, lyme, cancer, among others, they've finally decided that it's just "her thing".

 

[Sadie22]

DS once took name brand liquid antibiotic with cherry flavoring and then generic with strawberry flavoring and broke out in hives all over his legs. It took weeks for the marks to fade and we feared scarring - that's how bad that was. He had had the cherry flavoring many times but this was the first time with the strawberry. So he was allergic to either the strawberry flavoring (color or flavor) or the generic version of that drug.

Scarlet fever (strep with a rash) does not look the same in everyone.

Like anything, if you are not satisfied by what the doctor says and your child is uncomfortable, get a second opinion.

 

[Leajess99]

When DD10 gets strep, sometimes she does not even have a sore throat but will get a rash. The first time it happened, we thought she was having an allergic reaction to something. It spread over a couple days then an allergy dr determined it was strep. It looked just like the rash she got when she took amoxicillin as a little kid - little tiny red bumps.

Hope your DD feels better & you get some answers soon!

This has been the same with my dd. The first 3 times she was diagnosed with strep (2 were within a week of each other and while she was already on antibiotics) all she had was the rash. This past time (last week) she was tested and showed positive for strep because she was complaining her chest hurt. She has asthma and we thought it was the result of being in the cold for so long for Punt, Pass, and Kick.

 

[Leajess99]

The new med is Cefdinir. She DOES have stomach pain, but that is not too unusual for her (she has GERD), but I admit the stomach pain is one of her biggest complaints right now. I am calling in a few minutes and I will update later on. Thanks so much. Oh and the rash was on her ribs, back of neck, forehead and on her left foot (the right one is the one she can't walk on though).

IF she is in fact allergic to amoxicillin than you should STOP giving this to her and contact the doctor. She could very well be allergic to this as well since it is somehow related to Amoxicillin. My friend's daughter has been given this twice and the first time the mom questioned it and the doctor said no big deal she would probably not react. Well she broke out in hives and had to be taken right back off it. The second time the mom caught it prior to dad giving it to her since dad took her to the doctor and got the perscription.

 

[hambirg]

I don't know, but my first reaction was rheumatic fever. Do kids even get that anymore? I remember waaaay back in the day, I had a bad bout of strep and my mom was concerned that it might turn into rheumatic fever, because two of my cousins had it.

 

[PLibster]

I'm sure this is not what your child has but when my son was 5 he had a strep rash that caused him to have GBS(guillian-barre syndrome). He never had a fever, but was put on antibiotics. Two days later he started complaining of joint pain in legs, then he started limping. The doctor said it was just a pulled muscle. The next day he started falling over ever so many steps. I took him for bloodwork and xrays, nothing. The next day he could not walk and he couldn't lift his arm. Rushed to ER and a wonderful Neuro said it was GBS and we had to admit him. GBS is an autoimmune disease. Your bodies antibodies attack the mylin around your nerves. It starts in feet and moves up through the body until it reaches your respitory system and you will stop breathing. We caught it just in time. He was in hospital for 5 days and we had to have 2 months of PT to teach him how to walk and feed himself. He was fine after 5 months.
So many doctors were saying oh its a reaction, oh its him wanting attention, oh its a pulled muscle. Trust your instincts always!! Push to have tests done!

 

[EllenFrasier]

I hate going to the ER because it takes forever.....but, they can run a multitude of tests there if necessary and get the results then, not in days or weeks. If it were my child, and she continued to show new symptoms or if any of them worsened, I would be at the ER.
My ds12 had a reaction antibiotics, I think it was amoxicillin (sp?). His Dad is allergic to penecillin so it's not a surprise. He took it for over a week and then got the rash, mostly on his arms and upper torso. We called the Dr. and he said stop taking the meds and we did. The strep did not leave and we had to do another round of another antibiotic to finally kick it.
You know your child and what is normal for her. If she overreacts to everything she gets, like a cold is always the flu type of person, then you know you need to trust yourself. If this is unusual for her, then maybe you should take her to the ER.

 

[sookie]

Here's a weird outcome, ironically my DD just so happened to have a appt to have her orthopedic doc to have her inserts resized today so I decided to hold off until that appt. at 10:00 She doesn't have foot pain with her foot problem BTW in case anyone was wondering - that was never on the table for me.

Her podiatrist was so great, he listened to the whole thing and examined her and even though he is not a general practice doc, he said that he feels that she really did/is allergic to the medicine, hence the rash. He also feels like her joint pain is related to sleeping funny with her skin discomfort. This one, I'm on the fence about, but we'll see.

He taped her foot to make it more comfortable for her and said if she is still in pain two days from now go back to her doctor. To the person who mentioned the cellulitis - OMG - it looked SO much like cellulitis (which I deal with on a regular basis at my job) that I can't believe I didn't think of that. I guess I didn't realize it could come from Strep. If that particular area gets like that again I will go straight to the ER for treatment. But....does that mean since the flare up went away that it "wasn't" cellulitis at all?

I will update in a few days if there's anything to update. So far I'm just kind of waiting....

podiatrists are not physicians - they have a doctorate in podiatry, not a doctorate in medicine. go to a real pediatrician.