please, can any medical people help me with a query over my ds that has my GP stumped?

[loopylou6]

ds (9) started a few weeks ago with a painful foot/ankle for no apparent reason, went the gp and she said he may of sprained something, after a day or so the swelling went down and he reasumed normal activities, today however it has been paining him again, school phoned me to go and get him and his foot was up like a balloon and very red, he was sobbing in agony
heres the weird part though, it is now affecting his other foot i stupidly googled and found that sore feet/ankles can be linked to leukimia something i dont even like typing, i have had concerns in the past over this )he had massive neck glands) but they have never been followed up really, BUT he was at the hospital at the start of the summer hols with suspected appendicitus and they took blood then, but as they let him go i assumed i didnt need to worrty about the bad thing anymore, but afer googling i panicked took him the doc this afty, doc hasnt a clue, says its an inflammitary (sp?)issue, and asked ds if anyother joints hurt (why????) and to dose up on ibuprofen a nd come back and see him at the end of the week, he said this is highly unusual. i got my dh to take ds out of the room and voiced my concerns to him and asked about his blood results, NOW iw as very pleased to hear that his blood cell thingys where all normal at the hospital so would i be correct in assuming that this means he cant have any bad things?
thank you for reading my hysterical babbling badley spelled message, and thatnk you even more if u can offer any advice/knowledge

have you googled rheumatoid arthritis?

RA is an autoimmune thing, I will google now and hopefully come back and say it's a stupid suggestino

Good news, there is a blood test for RA. So if your ds has had the test then presumably he doesn't have it, which would be good news. I can imagine that might be why the GP asked about other joints so hopefully that test would have been included.

thank you SIL, i didnt know children could get RA, he hasnt had an actuall blood test specifically for RA but i may ask for it.
JH thank you SO much for that, i felt sick with worry before.

One of my ds's friends had leukaemia. His bloods were not normal. But you sound so genuinely worried that a referral to a specialist might help things here.

sadly it's the most common form of arthritis in children --
it can be, I think, inflammation that persists after a virus or something along those lines

I hope a blood test will set your mind at rest

Has he had recent infection/ Has he has any spots on his legs or buttocks, or painful testicles.

thank you boffin, thats really helpful to know did your friend son have any symptoms like swollen feet?
SIL, thanks i will see about it
WP, no he hasnt as far as i am aware.

He had similar symptoms to your son apart from the blood results (joint pain in knees, swollen glands, under the weather), which means they must be illnesses that mimic each other, I imagine.

All the more reason to get bloods done, which luckily you have in hand, because if I understand it correctly, they can test blood counts for leukaemia and also something they call 'markers' for autoimmune conditions (I know this last one because I have an automimmune problem and the specialist explained this to me at the time). Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition.

I do think you should talk to the GP about getting a referral to a specialist if at all possible, because if it is autoimmune there are bound to be things they can do to make your son more comfortable. I really wouldn't be worried about leukaemia if it was my son, on the basis of the information you have given us here.

Another thing. It sounds daft, but have they x-rayed your son's foot and ankle at any point?? You never know ... You don't want to be hearing hooves and assuming it's a zebra rather than a horse, as they say (probably an unfortunate coice of metaphor given the foot thing!)

thank you BM, no he hasnt had an xray yet, maybe that would be a useful step to take, how long did your ds's friend have symptoms for before he was diagnosed? my ds started with his swollen glands in his neck 5 years ago, but they go up and down when hes ill and react to anti biotics

One thing that might make you feel better about the leukaemia thing (this helped me when I had similar concerns) is that the in children leukaemia apparently has a fairly rapid onset - apparently the typical time from first symptoms to diagnosis is about 4-5 weeks.
So if the symptoms have been going on for a while then it is less likely, IYSWIM.

(I'm not a paed BTW, maybe some people who know about this stuff will come and correct me if I'm wrong, but it made me feel a lot better).

If your DS had blood taken for appendicitis, I suspect they would have checked his Full Blood Count, which would, almost certainly have picke d up a leukaemia. The thing your GP may be concerned about would be arthritis; either RA or Still's disease, hence asking about other joint swelling/pain. Further blood tests should be able to diagnose these. If you are concerned that your GP is not giving you answers ask for a referral to a paediatric rheumatologist. All that said, it is common that kids present with random symptoms that we don't get a diagnosis for and amount to nothing. GL

MMM, thank you for that.
PR, i could kiss you , yes he did have a full blood count done, the GP rattled of about the red blood thing and the white blood thing being normal, but he did sat that his inflammation something or toher markers when up, but that might of been because his diagnosis was metersenteric adentius (please excuse my ignorance of spelling

I think my ds's friend was ill for a about a month or so, if I remember right, but it was the summer before last when this all happened.

Can't believe nobody x-rayed his foot!

My cousin's stepdaughter had swollen ankles when she was quite little and was in hospital for a long time. But it wasn't leukaemia and she is fine now.

its not red today but still quite swollen, hes appears fine in himself

bumping in the hope of anymore lovely knowledgable people