day 6 of hip pain in dd8, what would you do now, any doctors out there?

[piratecat]

I am following on from my other thread on this posted beginning of last week.

DD's hip is STILL awful, but although i havebeen to gp twice and A+E once late last wednesday, and given calpol and ibuprofen it's still hurting.

We are booked for an xray on thurs. I am totally stressed out becuase i have no idea what's causing this , although the visit to a+e (where they sort of looked at me like i was mad) said the following

1. could be bursitis.
2. wasn't infection (which of course is good)

GP number one, said 'might be to do with her clicky hip' but can't tell. I'll get her an appt for orthopedics ( this is end of feckin june)

GP number 2 said, 'it could be inflamed', just give her the anti inflammatories.

On searching around, there is talk of post viral things that can affect hips, knees etc.. DD had a flare up of some sort on her vagina/labia in the preceeding 5 days to this hip thing. Not diagnosed as thrush, or bacterial, but after 2 days they gave her v strong penicillin anyway.

we are oficially pissed off and feeling helpless here.

Gp 2 said if it's not got any worse send her bacl to school on monday. well it's not got any better so what do i do ffs.

sorry am just totally fed up now of seeingher in pain.

pain gets worse on lifting to say get in bed, or in car or up stairs. so have had to carry her alot. Two nights ago the pain was coming like contractions for one hour.

any doctors out there???????

no not septic arthritis, that sounds terrible. thanks for your input.

this post viral synovitis seems likely realy. NONE of thedocs or gp's i have said have mentioned it tho how weird.

am i being unreasonable to think, that the fact i have googled and mn has suggested it, makes them look ridiculous?
Maybe i am losing the plot, i am so knackered.

well dd, can deffo move it, too much if anything. can't when it flares up obv.
she calls it her clicky bone, or 'when my bone comes out'. And cos she has had a cliky hip at birth, and has said it's happened in the past, but 'goes back in' within mins, i assumed this is what this was. but it's not 'gone back in' now for all these days.

I had something called perthes when I was about 5 see here

Piratecat, it was sorted out in about 6 months on traction at Standish hospital. I do sometimes get hip pain but all OK. Just realised the website might freak you out a bit.

I remember having sore hips, then one day I got out of bed and couldn't stand up.

The symptoms are:

The condition usually begins with hip or groin pain, or a limp. Sometimes knee pain is the first symptom. The pain persists and there may be wasting of the muscles in the upper thigh, shortening of the leg and stiffness of the hip, which can restrict movement and cause problems with walking.

thanks dolly, am sorry to hear you has such a horrible exp. I have spd, yes 8 yrs on, and my hips and pelvis are not great, so know how it can affect life.

I realy think it's this transient synovitis thing.

will link in case this thread gets flagged up in a search sometime.

about transient synovitis

Given she's had an infection or virus of some kind recently I agree that some sort of inflammation in reaction to that sounds quite likely. As someone else said, not all kinds of arthritis or joint inflammation will produce a hot or swollen knee, or a fever. I never had very much swelling with my arthritis as a child, or a temperature.

Probably a good idea to start keeping a diary of the symptoms so a doctor can get an idea of how it fluctuates, even if the joint happens to be quite "quiet" when you see them.

Hope you can get it sorted out Piratecat and hope it's not Perthes. I was young enough for it to not bother me very much, although it must have been an ordeal for my parents.

Sorry to hear you have spd still, my hips caused me problems when I was pregnant but mostly they're fine now.

Hope you get it sorted.

My dd2 (6) is just coming out of the other side of Perthes disease and tbh it sounds nothing like what your dd has.

In fact she had limping and knee pain for 3 months before we took her to the doc and that is quite common for Perthes - in fact the consultant praised dh (a GP) for spotting it so soon!

You need to demand a to be seen asap by the Orthopds though - no child should be left in pain that long!

dolly interestingly these days Perthes is treated without traction or plastering, just movement restriction. My dd2 had 2 years of no running, jumping, skipping, hopping and walking for more then 5 mins - and a lot of time off her legs totally due to the pain! A nightmare for an actiev 4-6 year old. But about 8 weeks ago she got the OK to run again ... it makes me cry every time I see her take off across the park!!!

piratecat sorry you are being given the round around. Your DD really needs the x-ray, and/or and ultrasound and a blood test. The best thing would be for the GP to refer her to see a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon (any idea if one at your nearest hospital?). Transient synovitis is possible, as is Perthes, but she needs an ultrasound to confirm. The Dr could see her in clinic and get all the tests ordered. Good luck, I hope you get someone to sort this out very very soon.

I agree with snowwombat it's the only way to rule out some of the things it could be.

Weegiemum glad to hear your dd is making a good recovery, I spent 6 months on traction, then another 6 months in plaster, then had to learn to walk again. In the US they treat it now with a hip replacement.

I think it was all much worse for my parents than for me.

But the interesting thing is that I only remember having a bit of hip pain, till one day it was really bad and I couldn't put any weight on it at all. My mum carried me to a different GP than our usual one, and he recognised the symptoms and I was in hospital the next day.

pireatecat if it does turn out to be Perthes, then get in touch/CAT me or something.

I've not come across any current Perthes Mums on MN in the last 2 years, and dd2 isn't totally free yet (no jumping, high impact things, 30 mins exercise max etc) so if that is what it is, I'd be more than willing to chat it over with you.

My dd2 has had one of the worst cases of Perthes that Yorkhill in Glasgoe has seen for years, but no-one ever mentioned hip replacement - except to say she might need one in her 40's/50's and suffer arthritis.

that they are treating it with this in the US. Dd2 has had 2 years of enforced rest/wheelchair but nothing invasive and on x-ray her hip looks almost totally normal now!

pirate cat I'm going off now but didn't want to lose this thread,my dd has Juevenile Arthritis so will keep an eye on this to see how your dd is

thanks. i will be up very early in the morning, to make sure i am ringing my surgery as soon as they turn the phones on. Don't care what they think, i have seen enough pain this evening thankyou.
xx

Try hot water bottle on it/ or dd1 prefers frozen peas, whe her joints flare

Even though dd is on voltoral her consultant said if need be we could still rub in some anti inflamtory gel

BTW I have heard of a few people geting fluid on their hip recently as a result of previous infection (odd it seems quite common)

Def off to bed now

thanks plum. she can't even touch it/skin or anything, it's too painful.

have a good rest.

It is perfectly possible that it is your dd's hypermobility that is now starting to play up.

Ds has a lot of hip pain from his hypermobility and was off all last week because of it (he can hop when it's bad and get around on crutches, but not sit). It comes and goes, seemingly at random: he never knows when it starts if it's going to be for a few minutes or a few weeks.

The awkward thing if it is hypermobility is that it won't show up on anything like x-rays, and it also won't show up as inflammation, with hot or swollen joints. You need a rheumatologist to diagnose.

hi cory, how are you? yes the hypermobility really isn't helping, or maybe IS the problem.

Another word to my vocab--rheumatologist.

! Ok I am seeing a different GP at 9.30, and feeling ok about that becuase I can be firmer in my concerns.

Good luck, piratecat.

gp sent us up to xray at local mini hosp. looks ok bonewise, or whatever they are looking for.

Will go for the peadiatrics aapt onthursday at big hosp. I rang school, and head was great, I will send dd in tomorrow, and we will see how she gets on. He suggested a half day, or whatever suits. He will inform her teacher tha tshe's not to, well, move basically.

ok, seems like a plan.

Good news about the x-ray. It might be worth looking into some physio if none of the tests show anything up - can be very useful in kids with hypermobility.

Another thing to ask about is a problem where the hip ball-and-socket joint is too shallow and consequently it slips out easily which feels like a partial dislocation. DS had this from birth ? he called it a clicky hip ? and it really flared up when he was about 8 and starting to do a lot of sport.

It is apparently a really difficult problem to diagnose ? x-rays won?t necessarily reveal it, you need an MRI or an investigative operation. As an orthopaedic physio, I could tell there was a serious problem but it was only when we got DS referred to Great Ormond Street that their experts were able to diagnose it correctly and start treatment.

Did they not do a blood test at the A&E? They absolutely should have done - just in case. When I was working in hospital labs, there were very few emergencies that really required an ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, a marker for inflammation) but irritable hip in children was ALWAYS one of them. Damn that SHO for being such a know-it-all young snot!

I hope that you get some results from the paed and get referred on to an orthopaedic or rheumatology consultant.

Might be worth printing this thread out and taking it with you for reminders?

no no blood test was done thumbwitch.

The woman who did the xray, rang the main hosp, and she said they said it looked fine.

The gp today had asked it be looked at for a suspected slipped femoral epiphysis?

I don't know, so from what you say Matelli, with the ball and socket thing, this wouldn't have shown up today?

It's what i have suspected all along, cos dd has had this very infrequently and it's lasted only ten mins say at a time. Yet what do i know lol.

I am glad i am going to the paediatrician on thurs.

i swear to god i have had enough. she couldn't get in the bath, so i just lifted her and the pain was excruciating. I am sat here trying not to cry myself. I am atm y wits end,