The last time Cason had strep was at the end of February. They treated it with antibiotics and all was well for a few days. Then about a week after we finished the medicine Cason started having lots of problems with joint pain. At first we thought it might be growing pains but it seemed too painful for that to be the case. It was so bad a few times that he refused to stand up, walk, or even let us move him to his bed. This went on for about 3 weeks and we ended up taking him the the doctor a couple of different times. They thought it was either Toxic Synovitis or it was a reaction to the strep. Then, once morning he woke up and his wrist was warm, swollen, and he refused to move it so I took him back to the doctor. They sent us to have blood work done---the doctor though it might be Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. However, his blood work all looked good except for it was still showing strep in his system (even though the throat swab was negative). His symptoms disappeared a couple of days after that. They wanted us to have a follow up with a pediatric rheumatologist just to be sure everything was okay even though the symptoms had gone away.
We met with the rheumatologist a couple of weeks ago and she said that Cason had what is called Post-streptococcal reactive arthritis. His little body just had an abnormal response to strep. The rheumatologist said that because he reacted in this way to strep it is likely that he would react that way again and that it might last longer and be less responsive to Motrin in the future. The other main concern is that the people that get post-streptococcal reactive arthritis are also more likely to have it develop into rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever can cause permanent damage to the heart so it is the recommendation from the American Heart Association that anyone that has post-streptococcal reactive arthritis be treated with penicillin for a year following the episode. So she wants us to keep Cason on penicillin twice a day every day for a year in an effort to avoid him getting strep again for at least 1 year. Cason has been such a trooper about taking his medicine every day even though I think it tastes really bad.
So you can imagine my surprise when I take him to his 6 year well visit today and get told that both he and Corbin have STREP!!! Even though neither child has any symptoms, even though Cason has been on preventive penicillin every day to keep him from getting strep, and even though poor Corbin doesn't even have any tonsils (this is Corbin's 3rd time to get strep since having his tonsils taken out).
We are just praying that Cason's little body will not have an adverse reaction this time and that it will not develop into arthritis or rheumatic fever.
The doctor just thought his tonsils looked enlarged today while he was checking him out so he ran a strep test just to see and sure enough it was positive. I'm so glad we were there because I would have never known. Corbin's strep test was a faint positive so they said he most likely got it from Cason who they think is a carrier. So the next thing on our agenda is to get Cason's tonsils out as soon as possible. We were at the doctors office for a very long time---and with a baby and 2 wild boys it seemed like were were in a three-ring circus! I'm sure they were glad to be rid of us :)
If you are still reading this super long post, you'll be happy to know that everything else with his well check was great.
Weight: 53 pounds (83%)
Height: 47.3 inches (80%)
Cason and Madi were both at the pediatrician today for their 6 year well checks but we had to stay away from them so we wouldn't pass along any germs. I sure do love these two and I can't believe they've gotten so big!
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