Something not right with 3yr old

[BethMck]

I need some help please, my 3 year old son has had a pain in his right knee for over a month (first day 17th dec) it has been going on every day since, intermittent pain and inability to bear weight on his right leg, some days he will just have a slight limp now and again and say his knee hurts, sometimes he will ask me to pick him up because his leg hurts, gps and a&e doctors aren't concerned as he otherwise looks totally fine. Over the past 2 weeks he's complained of pain in his left leg as well as the right and twice hes said his right arm hurts too.. other symptoms diarrhoea, looking off colour and saying he's tired and needs to lie down on the sofa to rest, these symptoms come and go every couple of days, he has had a blood test that came back normal apart from low in vitamin D. I have read alot of stories from parents who said their child was completely healthy and initial blood tests were normal before other tests were done and turned out to be cancer. Obviously this is my concern and I've expressed this to doctors who dismiss me by saying he looks very healthy so I wouldn't worry about it being anything serious, he has been referred to Pediatrics 2 weeks ago but I still haven't received anything from them with regards to an appointment. Went back to the gp today to discuss the new pain in his left leg and right arm, he wasn't concerned and said to just wait for the pediatrics to get in touch he did mention juvenile arthritis as a possibilty. Everyone around me is telling me I'm just worrying about nothing and the doctors are making me feel like I'm being stupid. I really want all the tests possible to rule out cancer. But I'm being told if doctors were concerned they would be rushing him through for tests. My issue is I had a cousin who was told her symptoms were likely nothing serious and for months she was denied tests, when she finally had tests done she was diagnosed with cancer, due to the delay in diagnosis she sadly lost her battle a year later and passed away at just 22 years old. AIBU in thinking I am being fobbed off and do you think my anxiety is taking over? Should I trust the doctors and wait for the pediatrician to contact me or should I keep pushing for tests? I feel like I'm going crazy, is this an actual parental gut feeling or am I looking into this too much and getting paranoid??
So sorry for the long post. Please help a mama out xx

It was years ago when DD had this (he’s now in his mid 20s!)
I just remember my very sporty lad (think he was about y6) complaining about awful knee pain that came and went along with a limp

Coild you get some UTI testing strips and manage to catch a sample from him? It’s probably not even that but I know that when my kids are unwell I feel much better if I’m ’doing’ something

Re the abx your DS has had; if there’s a teeny chance he does have a UTI then they might not be the right spectrum ones to treat it?

If DS has reactive arthritis (couldn’t remember the name) then it’s pretty common to have knee pain triggered by another systemic infection

It’s so weird how knee pain could be triggered by a urine infection in your DS @CaptainAwkward. It could be worth ruling out OP while you're waiting for the scan? My DH gets urine infections quite a lot and sometimes it takes 2 or 3 different types of antibiotics before they get the right one to clear it up.

Have they considered lupus? My cousin had it but sadly for him he wasn’t diagnosed and treated soon enough. Though unusual in a child this young. It’s an auto immune disease so they struggle to fight off any illness or injury.

If your child has symptoms such as fever, fatigue, joint stiffness, and skin rashes — especially a butterfly shaped rash across her cheeks and nose — it might mean they have lupus.

It's so hard to say because I feel that if it was anything too serious I think he would be worsening health wise, but he seems completely fine in himself, other than being really snotty all the time, but yesterday we went on a walk along the canal, he was on his scooter and he was fine but by the time we got back to the car he was saying ouch and asking to go to the doctors because his knee hurts, it's just the pain in his knee that seems to be happening and worsening with exercise so I have no idea what could cause that, surely if it was say a urine infection it would happen randomly and not worsen with the amount of walking/running/playing he does. I still haven't received a letter for his appointment for the scan 🙄

@BethMck sorry not read the full thread but did you get his vitamin D rechecked?

I'm just wondering could it be hypermobility causing problems? Sorry if someone else mentioned just thinking is his knee dislocating you can get joint problems from being hypermobile.
Love him I hope you get answers soon it's frustrating isn't it with the NHS.. My ds has been on a waiting list for 7 months for a different but urgent health issue, only just been referred to outpatients.

Yes his vitamin D was 'a little bit on the low end' so he was prescribed supplements which he has now finished

I've thought this but he's never had any issues with mobility, no sign of flexibility and things like that, where as his older brother has really flexible elbow joints which makes me think maybe he has that but he hasn't had any problems, I just want to get the scan out of the way because that can detect anything scary that has been missed, I'm hoping it will reveal something simple that is easily sorted and I can put it to the back of my mind, all the waiting gives me time to overthink everything but I'm definitely feeling reassured that he is well and his cbc is normal still

Hope you get some answers soon. Can imagine how scary it must be

Thank you, my brain tells me it's fine one minute, it'll be something of nothing that's easily sorted and the next it's like omg it could he something really serious like a tumour and I'll panic! Just can't wait to get the scan done and hopefully that will tell us something and be a step closer to getting his knee better bless him!

I sort of wonder if the snotty nose is a red herring - my three year old has had a constant cold since November, I don’t think we’ve had a day where she hasn’t been a bit snotty - and it’s actually muscular if it’s being triggered by exercise.

Also, and I’m sure it’s not the case but also worth mentioning, my 3 year old hurt her ankle (she twisted it slightly) on a certain part of the road. Now whenever we go on that road she says her ankle hurts. This is obviously something that’s been discussed a lot that he’s probably picked up and I wonder whether some of it is a bit psychosomatic now. You’ve seen him limp so I very much doubt it but thought I’d mention it!

This had crossed my mind, my partner used to say "you keep making a fuss so he'll be putting it on" so I ignored it and stopped mentioning it but would point out to my partner when I noticed him rub his knee or start to limp and he agreed he can't be putting it on.. you can see something is physically hurting him suddenly when he's active and he will start to limp but he tries to ignore it and carry on. The snotty nose I was thinking was connected because its been going on almost as long as the limp and his infection markers were raised which would suggest some kind of infection or inflammation somewhere in the body so I just connected them together but it could be that it's just coincidence and nothing to do with the knee issue at all, it's just so frustrating not knowing what is causing the pain. He is eating much better now so those small improvements are reassuring, I just need some real answers now, all this guess work is very tiring

Yeah I can see that with the infection markers - just occurred to me as I suddenly realised what an awful winter it’s been for colds and bugs and my children have legitimately been unwell since before Christmas. Given how much worse it is when he exercised, just made me think it may be muscular and the cold is coincidence, but maybe not!!

I really hope you can get an answer soon!

I am thinking it could be muscular too tbh with the fact it gets worse with exercise and you are probably right about the snotty nose, like I say, the fact he doesn't seem to be getting any worse and is actually healthy and looks fine after all this time is reassuring and I am confident it will turn out to be nothing too serious! Just the waiting gives you time to start overthinking and over analysing

How is he now @BethMck? Good luck for the scan this week 🤞

Hi lovely, he is still pretty much the same, no change from the last update so I'm really hoping the scan will give us something to go on.. thank you so much for asking, I will be sure to update the post incase anyone else finds themselves in the same situation and hopefully be able to share a reason! X

Good luck for the scan OP!

Scan all done of right knee and hip, he said he would be sending it to be looked at and then send a written report to pediatrics today and then depending on any findings I will get the results in order of priority from the pediatrician, either by phone or letter, so if I don't receive a call today or tomorrow, I'll take that as no news is good news. And now we wait... again 😂

It's a good step forward though. So glad your son is finally getting there. You sound (if that's even possible) more relaxed too so hopefully you are sleeping better and worrying less...

Finally @BethMck, getting somewhere at last.

Yes I'm definitely more relaxed about it, I told myself that if it was something very bad then he would be getting visibly more poorly looking etc, but he's not, he's fine in himself still has an appetite, no weight loss etc I worried myself sick thinking what if it's this or that, so I decided to stop and just cross each bridge as we come to it, it was one hell of a fight to get here but I'm just glad that's finally done and hopefully get results soon, no call today so that's a good sign 🙂

Still no word? Might be worth following up if you haven't heard next week as I wouldn't trust them not to lose the results!

I know what you mean, after the pediatrician forgot to send the referral in the first place I don't really have much confidence in her....

Chase her secretary for the results. It's what they are there for. Be as nice as pie and you'll get better results. I do it all the time. Been doing it recently for results for elderly parents.