new member introduction

[Guest guest]

Hi, Folks,

I just joined the list and it asks to send a letter of introduction,

so here it is. I haven't read through all of the info here in the

group yet, but am eager to do so.

My daughter Emma (almost 4 years old) was diagnosed as likely having

a couple days ago, after a year of periodic fevers and a bit of

fighting on our part for a referral to a specialist (an infectious

disease doc at Dartmouth who sees and treats it frequently, though not

specifically in his field). We're doing to try the prednisone to

confirm the diagnosis next time she lights up. The physician

recommended searching for this group.

Before being clued in to I was doing my own research to try to

figure out what might be going on with her, as her primary care

physician was telling us it was just a new virus each month (I didn't

buy it after I found the periodicity on the charting was so striking).

Her symptoms are completely controlled with ibuprofen, which we

initially gave for fever, so I was coming at it from that angle,

looking into the mechanisms of action of ibuprofen, notably the COX-1

and COX-2 inhibitory implications. I've got a stack of research

papers here focused on NSAID effects, especially on the arachnidonic

acid cascade and prostaglandin production, and how that might trigger

a hypothalamus response. I'm also interested in looking into

signaling pathways between the hypothalamus and parts of the brain

known to mediate periodic cycles to see if there's anything there.

This isn't my day-job, so I get through it little by little, and hope

it'll be helpful in the end.

I find the prednisone treatment interesting from the anti-inflammatory

angle and how ibuprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and

works such wonders for Emma. It seems likely-to-certain to me that

some inflammatory process is involved here as an underlying cause or

at least a pathway. As a precautionary method I've been doing what I

can to improve her ratios of Omega-3 fatty acids to Omega-6's

(especially arachnidonic acid, as above) for anti-inflamatory benefit

from the diet but it's a constant challenge with a modern western diet

(and there's no fish oil that's pleasant to take for a three year

old). I believe this has helped reduce the severity and duration of

her episodes, but my sample size is only 1 and she's getting older, so

cause and effect is very hard to determine there.

Anyway, I'm going to be reading up on the past discussions here over

time, and hopefully some of the above has already been covered. If

anybody's doing similar research I'd love to hear from you.

And just a 'thanks' to those who started and maintain this group, and,

of course, to everybody who participates for sustaining it.

-Bill