jra and maybe chicken pox | Arthritis Information
Tried to search this, but only came up with stories about kids who had onset after chicken pox. Any input appreciated! I'm having a terrible week, kid-health-wise!!!!
My daughter is not immune-suppressed at this time, so we don't have that worry.
She had the first vaccine at age one, but no booster per ped rheum because it is a live vaccine. They wanted to do it at four, I think the state recommends five? Anyway, she's due.
Friday, note from school saying chicken pox in classroom. Daughter says it is a boy, one I hear about e-v-e-r-y d-a-y. Great.
Saturday afternoon, fever of 101. No pox, though. Then she threw up about 7:00, and the fever broke. Happy mommy. 24 hr. bug over in 4 hrs., I thought.
Woke up happy, ate breakfast. Then said her leg itched. It isn't chicken pox, though, it is a red rash about the size of my palm.
Hmmmm. But still no fever.
Checked out the rest of her, and found tons, TONS, of tiny hard to see bumps on her stomach. You can feel them. They don't seem like pox, but I guess with the vaccine you never know. Totally different from the leg rash, though.
Still feeling fine, hubby says I'm overreacting.
We have a book from his employer with all kinds of general health info it (hubby says it is because they don't want you to go to the doctor...) It is easy to understand, and has a 'triage' page for everything - "Call doctor", "Call doctor now", etc. I looked up chicken pox, hoping for more symptoms and descriptions.
Not looking too good....
"High risk child exposed to chicken pox" (she qualifies as "has autoimmune disease") - Call Doctor. Okay...
"Red rash separate from chicken pox" - Seek Emergency Care
Aaaaaahhhh!!! So I called the doctor, even though hubby still says I'm overreacting because she feels fine. Got the answering service because the nurses are at lunch until two. She said call back then, unless my daughter got worse. She said they get busy when they reopen, so keep trying.
Well, my daughter is still feeling fine, but hydrocortisone didn't clear up the red rash yet.
What will chicken pox do to her? Make her flare really bad? The only pain she has complained of is a headache when she had the fever.
Sounds a bit like scarletina. That usually starts in arm pits and pubic area, and upper thighs. Actually years ago at the day care we had scarletina and chickenpox going around at the same time. But it may be chicken pox that have not formed to blisters yet. Or even a heat rash from the fever. Both a heat rash and scarletina tend to be a rased rash that you can feel.Also i have no idea what shingels look like. That is another concern when you get to talking about chicken pox. And you are right i have no idea what the vacine would do as far as covering up or changing what the rash looks like. I just don't know.Well chicken pox are like RA they effect everyone differently. Usually the younger the child the milder the case but not always. I have no idea how this will effect her RA. Well no school for awhile i would recommend. It was the craziest thing i ever saw about twenty one years ago at the daycare. Like i said we had both the scarletina and the chicken pox going around at the same time. Then some of the kids started getting staff in them. Turned out to be the lesser of the staff infections and was treated pretty well with antibiotics. One of my children woke up one day every spot was purple and he had bronchitis. My youngest just had the regular itchy uncomfortableness and Aveno oatmeal bath made him feel a bit better. Then the one that had tuned to purple spots had a yellow pussed filled ring growing about a week after he had recovered from the chicken pox and had to take an extra dose of antibiotics. He had already had a course of antibiotics for the bronchitis. One child actually ending up getting a shunt in his head. Then my best friend her kids also went to the daycare. She had a fever of 105 and we couldn't get it any lower. Carried her limp to the hospital. They addmitted her and put her in isolation they had no clue at first. I thought the daycare had started some new form of disease. Turned out she had the one isolated case of Legionares disease in the state of Georgia. Go's to show you that it can always be something different going around or happening at the same time. So let me know what they are talking about when they say raised red rash. I am curious. My kids had already had scarletina before this outbreak so they did not have to get both at the same time like some of the other kids did.The nurse said chicken pox would not be a fine rash like I was describing. I want to believe that, but I just know they were wrong about my older daughter, when she had it, because of how it presents after the vaccine.
But, since I want to believe it, I'm going to LOL, as long as she feels good. (But my older daughter felt good, too, and is still mad at me because she had to miss the Spring Carnival that year.)
The nurse said if the fever comes back (even lowgrade), or the rashes spread, they need to see her in the a.m. She said as long as she is fever-free and feeling good, send her to school.
Then she asked a question they never ask on the nurseline: "What's your phone number?"
Milly - my understanding is that shingles come after chicken pox, and are very painful. I think I had them, but hubby was out of town and by the time I got to the dr., the rash was gone and all they could say was what I described sounded like it. Something hurt like crazy!
I had scarletina - I was very young, but so sick I remember it! My daughter isn't that sick, thank goodness.
And the leg rash didn't seem to interest her, except that it was only one leg. She said put hydrocortisone on it, and I said I already did.I was 16 when i had scarletina and was misserable. My kids were very little and well my oldest when he got it was jumping on the bed he was three and did not think he was sick at all. So i always see as a blessing if they get this stuff when they are little it doesn't usually hit them quite so hard. Of course we did not have all the newer vacines when my kids were young.After one has scarletina the skin on the palms starts to peel. So if you ever notice that you know it was scarletina. But that does not hapeen for a week or better after onset.
From what I understand - shingles is adult chicken px when the vaccine didn't cover you enough - and it PAINFUL and comes and goes in waves. A friend at work had it for over a year.
Hugs to you and your babies -
Pip
Oh god Shingles is *miserable* it ain't that. You'd have had her in the ER already. God that sutff SUCKS!! >.<
Sounds like chicken pox to me! Been down this same path with all - what, probably 50+ 2 and 3 year olds I had at the day care. LoL No 2 kids were EVER alike when it came to the pox. Some got all big red blotchy, some got tiny little dots, some never got red at all, just raised a little.
It *could* make her flare, but if I had to guess I think she would have already. The pox is like any other rash, its sort of an "after" effect. She was contagious looonnnggg ago and it's working it's way out of her system now.
Relax and breathe momma!! ;-) But do take her in the AM if she isn't feeling better. Always better safe than sorry and at the very least they can make her comfortable!
I don't always worry about the kids giving stuff to other kids as much as i worry about them catching other stuff when there resistance is down from the illness.
Has she had the chicken pox vaccine?
My son got the chicken pox before he was diagnosed with JRA---although I am sure he actually had the disease already--he just wasn't doctor-diagnosed at the time.
Not sure if I believe that vaccine is good--I am still not convinced yet. I made sure both my kids got the actual chicken pox--I would send them to whoevers house had them going on!! I wanted it done and over with.The kids at the daycare who had the vaccine and still got the chicken pox were the ones who had the strangest symptoms. But they still had it!
Wen my kids were younger they didn't encourage the vaccine like they do for children now. My son had then and then my daughter had them a week later. I thought it was best to get it over with too.
Yes, she had the vaccine at age 1, but no booster because it is live and the ped rheum said no.
Katie is right, it is weird when they get it after the vaccine. My older daughter had them, but you could barely tell, and she didn't run a temp, either.
Get this - a friend who is a GP called last night, and I briefly shared our drama. "Didn't she get the vaccine?" Yes, but not the booster. "Why not?" (I think he automatically thinks I'm anti-everything because of AP). I said the ped rheum said not to.
What happened next is hilarious to me. I heard him boot up his computer LOL. Going to Google, just like I would......
Anyway, took the advice of the nurse who said send her to school if the fever doesn't return and the rashes don't spread. Classmates, be damned LOL.
She felt great this morning, the stomach bumps were not visible, barely 'feel-able' and the leg rash is now shaped like a triangle. It might be new location for her regular mystery rash, Notpsoriasis.
Drama level: High
Duration: Medium
Case closed.
Suaznne...put her in a hot bath. If she has chicken pox , it'll bring them out. You'll know it if you see it.
Linncn2008-03-03 13:03:16No don't do that. We do not like to encurage chickenpox to flare up on pretty little girls. I prefer the mystery dx. If she is fine we will leave her at that. [QUOTE=milly]. I prefer the mystery dx. If she is fine we will leave her at that. [/QUOTE]
Milly, you are funny!!! Thanks for making me smile!
Had a warm bath last night, no changes. She had a good day and reports the boy that started this all is already back at school, too.
If she can't get the booster, I wish she would go ahead and get them, because it seems inevitable. I don't know why she can't get the booster - if it causes a flare, wouldn't getting chicken pox do the same, so you are damned if you do, damned if you don't? I'll have to ask for more specifics next time we see the ped rheum.
Is the chicken pox vaccine "mandatory"? I know technically you don't have to vaccinate your kids at all, but you know what I mean. My kids all had the CP before the vaccine came out. I was kind of glad about that, it was over and done and so it wasn't ever a thing for us.For my nieces and nephews i know the Ill schools were pushing for it. It is mandatory i believe it was on the list of shots to have by a certain date Kindergarten I believe.No, the live vaccine making her flare was not the worry of the doc. As far as I know.
I still don't know why she didn't have it. I have a theory though, if she was on the antibiotics at the time, I wonder if it would interfere with a live vaccine.
Anyway, the usual fear with "us" and live vaccines is that a lot of folks are on immunosuppresants and with that mixture you're just asking for trouble.
No, nothing to do with AP. From "It's Not Just Growing Pains", by Dr. Thomas Lehman:
"If a child has received the three routine vaccinations scheduled up to six months of age and the first MMR, then the child should not receive any further vaccines while the arthritis is active. For children who are off medications or taking only a routine NSAID and if the arthritis has been fully controlled for six months, then one can carefully consider giving vaccinations."
Our ped rheum said yes to polio, tetanus, (or DTP?) and I think hep booster. I know she got some immunizations at her 4 yr. visit. No to rubella and varicella, a live vaccine.
More from the book: "Rubella is the only vaccine that routinely causes transient arthritis as a side effect. I would check to see whether a child has a reasonable titer of immunity and not revaccinate with rubella if the child is immune. I would avoid live vaccines (chicken pox, smallpox) in any child who has active disease or is receiving immunosuppressive drugs."
He says in a child on NSAIDS but well for six months, no live vaccines - "There is a risk of disease and Reye's syndrome."
Lehman says on immune suppression, no live vaccines to child, siblings, or household contacts.
Flu shots - he says, "Hotly debated by physicians. There is no right answer."
My daughter had one last flu season, no problem. I asked for one this year, while we were at the ped rheum, but he said get it at the ped's office. Another appt.! Another copay! Never got around to it, and now they say this year's is pretty ineffective anyway.
Suzanne2008-03-04 09:03:36THIS JUST IN!!!
New study shows some kids actually had less active joints after getting the vaccine, and also lower sedrate!
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