undiagnosed bone/joint pain in children

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I'm looking for clues or answers to help us figure out my 11 year old daughters pain.

For the past 18 months she's been having pain that is either in her left leg along the inside of her knee, in the siliac (sp) joint in her tailbone or the right side of her ribs/back. Its never in any of these places at the same time but rather she'll have bad pain in her knee for a week or two then no pain anywhere for say a month then the pain will show up in her rib or her tail bone, last a week or two then vanish again for a month or two before coming back in one of the three places.

She never does anything like strenuous behaviour or an injury to cause the pain to start.

Its worse at night and there's no swelling, heat or stiffness so they have ruled out arthritis.

She has vitiligo which makes me look at other auto immune diseases but we haven't come across one that fits her symptoms.

She's had Xrays and blood tests and they've all come back clear.

Each time the Dr says sorry, I guess it's just growing pains and maybe it is but she's not had any growth spurts, she's growing ofcourse but not any growth spurts and only grown a few cm in the past year.

Right now she's in bed unable to sleep, says it feels like her ribs are shrinking and she can hardly move because it hurts.

Has anyone been through anything like this before?

2 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • Posted

    Did her blood tests include vitamin D specifically? Ask for a copy of her test results and check. Rickets is unfortunately becoming increasingly common once again among children. Some autoimmune diseases are also associated with low levels/uptake of vitamin D and this is why rickets/osteomalacia is so common among people with another auto immune disorder. 
    • Posted

      I'm fairly sure Vit D was on the check list but I didn't get a copy so I can't be sure. I'll ask at our next appt. Thanks

  • Posted

    Get another opinion from another doctor.
    • Posted

      We've been to a few already, 4 GPs...The first two didn't take us seriously, the third is fantastic and the fourth we see whenever the third is away.

      We've also been seeing a physiotherapist for stretches and muscle massages incase that helps (a year later it hasn't)

      We've seen an autoimmune specialist and a dermatologist as part of her Vitiligo treatment. We've also seen a pediatric specialist and a bone specialist to get answers.

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