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Children's health

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Original poster

Rheumatoid arthritis

6 replies

Gorja · 03/08/2018 22:06

Does anybody have any experience with a child with rheumatoid arthritis?

DD1 who is 14 has been refferred for testing on Monday. I’m trying to avoid googling but am worrying.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Yumyumpigs · 03/08/2018 22:13

No I'm sorry but I have psoriatic arthritis (diagnosed at 34) but the right meds have made me nearly symptom free. The right medication can be marvellous so it's not necessarily such a bad diagnosis... .Not bloody great but there are effective treatments x.

Tinkerbell89 · 03/08/2018 22:23

I have rheumatoid arthritis. What are you worried about?

Wishicouldsleep · 03/08/2018 22:26

I was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (the children's version of rheumatoid arthritis) when I was 8.
I am late 20s now. How is your daughter doing?

Original poster

Gorja · 03/08/2018 22:27

I guess I’m worried about it being a life long condition with no cure.
She’s in so much pain and I worry that she will be in pain all her life.

OP posts:

Tinkerbell89 · 03/08/2018 23:16

I find it's like a volcano where you can go through episodes of flare ups and then it can go dormant and not be a problem. She will just need to learn to manage pain relief, warm baths help with pain and stiffness along with ibropufen gels and painkillers. The doctors will help her find the best medication that works for her. It can be very hard at times and a severe pain which is hard to describe but she will need to learn not to over do it when having a flare up. Physiotherapy can also help. The first thing is to see what the doctors say and ask them anything you are worried or feel you need to know. It becomes manageable usually.

Wishicouldsleep · 04/08/2018 09:11

Tinkerbell that's a good analogy. For me my RA is dormant most of the time. It tends to flair up when I'm stressed or been too busy with work, and most recently, had a baby (RA goes away when pregnant! How great is that!)

Doctors know a lot more about RA now than they did 40 years ago (when my father had it and suffered badly).

I was a patient at GOSH and they were fantastic at getting my RA under control.

It will probably be a rocky first year until the doctors find a suitable treatment plan and drug that works for her. There are a few drugs around and different drugs work better for different people, so it might be a bit trial and error.

When she has got over the initial flair up, long term swimming is a great exercise to take up for RA (very low impact and good for building muscle)

In the short term, has she been prescribed steroids? I find if I catch it early enough, when I get a flair up, the steroids can kick it in the butt and It gets better quickly.

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