Possible arthritis

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Hi.

I'm new to your group- mainly I wanted to join b/c I knew you would

have access to the information I wanted and needed to read. I should

give the background info that I " m a ped RN so the idea of kids having

JA wasn't new to me, but I don't have much of any knowledge on it (I

work with mostly critical kids and ER).

My dd (my 2nd child) is 18 months. On Dec 26th I noticed that when

she reached for a cracker that her hands were very swollen (esp the

middle 2 fingers). At the time I was thinking it was a reaction to

something since it was both hands. They were so hot and swollen, but

otherwise she was fine. The 27th I spoke with one of the drs at my

work (not her dr - just a friend) and they too thought it was most

likly contact dermatitis since all else was well. She has had a cold

for about 2 months but nothing too serious. She's very thin and this

winter she started to have problems with her hands getting cold,

mottled and purple (we're in S.CA). I think I made the mistake of

thinking these things were related and they are 2 seperate issues.

Anyway, my dh and I were looking at some of our pictures on the comp

to figure out what to print for this month and noticed that her

fingers looked a little swollen in some of the pictures. The oldest

picture with swelling is Dec 12 and Dec 9th she was fine. So, now it

seems she's had swelling for going on 3 weeks for no known reason.

I wish I could attatch a picture for you all. Her fingers are so

stiff! She hasn't slept well for about 2 weeks (she wakes up crying

all the time). She's been eating less than usual. She no longer grips

stuff. She pretty much keeps her fingers in a natural curved position

at all times. Yesterday I tried to bend her fingers and she starting

crying so badly. At this point they are swollen mostly from the

middle joint to the joint connected to the palm of her hand - she

moves pretty much only her index and thumb fingers right now.

The drs keep telling me that it is very unlikely that she has

anything wrong with her joints b/c it's only her hands and she's so

young and has no fevers. I had been stressing the coldness of her

hands (it's been cooler here lately) but dh reminded me that when she

is crying her hands are very hot, not cold usually. Tylenol and

Motrin don't seem to help much at all. I just feel bad for her. She

holds everything with an open grip, stopped using a fork/spoon,

doesn't like to hold our hands or climb as much lately. Anyway,

tomorrow I'm planning on calling for some lab work to be done and see

what those results are since I'm more and more thinking it has to be

something related to her previous virus and not a contact reaction.

Thanks for listening.