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Hi, My name is Joann and my 6 year old daughter (Zoe) was dx with

Pauciarticular JRA. So far it is only in one knee but we are watching

her ankles. Here is a little of our history/story. I was reading a

book with her before bed and noticed that her knee looked swollen and

when I touched it there was a lot of fluid. She mentioned landing on

it in gymnastics and falling off the monkey bars at school, so we put

an ice pack on it and took her to the Pediatrician the next day.

They did an x-ray, saw nothing but wrote me scripts for blood work to

rule out a viral thing if the swelling did not recede over the

weekend. They called on Monday, no improvement, we did blood work.

It came back inconclusive for anything so I was sent to a Ped. Ortho

at Cincy Childrens. The swelling had gone down so he suggested we

wait a month and recheck. Two days before the appt it looked great,

we then had gymnastics and the day of the appt it was all swollen

again. They did an MRI of the knee and after having it reviewed told

me they thought it might be JRA, submitted a referral to Rheum and

told me to be sure to follow up. All very positive. They had ruled

out doing a Lyme test at the Ortho. Saw Dr Graham at Cincy

Children's and after looking at it and discussing our history

(initial onsite in early Sept-visited RI over the summer) he was very

sure that it was Lyme and ordered the blood test along with the other

tests to rule out JRA/Lupus/etc. Well, a couple days after

Thanksgiving I called to get the results and when Dr Graham called

back, he told me were a rarity in that it was JRA and not Lyme. He

won't let me take him up on the fact that he said he would've bet a

paycheck on it being Lyme. So far our first eye visit is fine-3

month follow ups are scheduled. We have had one follow up visit with

the Rheum after starting Naprosyn and there is still swelling and we

have some leg length issues already. He wants to do cortisone shot

into the joint. I am really hesitant about this-anybody else tried

this and did it help with the swelling, etc and give you the chance

to stop the oral meds for a while?

My big question is whether any body here has worked with a

Naturopath? I am consulting with one that is very respected and I

have personally talked to many of her clients that have seen results,

but none that have JRA, just one adult with RA. I started down this

path for Zoe's twin that has other health issues and we found out

about Zoe's dx just before our consult on her twin. The Naturopath

has had success stopping auto-immune diseases before and I am hopeful

that we can avoid a long term oral med regimen. Neither of my girls

do well with oral steroids (we have had them in the past for Asthma

issues/bad colds) or any oral meds, really. And I have had Cortisone

shots before and they are not fun.

I look forward to gaining much knowledge from all of you. List

serves and forums have been a resource for me in many ways as I am

sure this one will be.

Joann

Mom to Zoe, 6, dx P-JRA 11/2007