Re: Rheumatic fever and RA

[Guest guest]

Hello Ana,

Welcome to the list!

My mother had rheumatic fever as a child. It went undiagnosed and

she almost died from it. During her mid-20's, she developed a

severe systemic streptococcus infection that settled in her legs

and knee joints and they swelled to twice their size. Her doc

said she had rheumatoid arthritis and sent her on her way. A week

later, unable to walk, my dad took her to the emergency room and

after the ER doc saw that her legs were oozing puss out of a few

small sores, the doc said she had been misdiagnosed and gave her

a shot of penicillin. Hard to say whether the rheumatic fever she

had could have caused such a spontanious infection many years

later. Luckily, she never went on to develop severe arthritis,

although she does get joint aches every now and then. But she did

end up developing chronic iritis (uveitis) in both eyes in her

40's that continues to this day. Iritis is often seen in people

with ankylosing spondylitis and related arthritic diseases.

Obviously, not everyone with a history of rheumatic fever goes on

to develop arthritis or other auto-immune conditions, but I have

a pretty good feeling that the rheumatic fever she had as a child

and/or the systemic strep infection she had during her mid-20's

is responsible for causing her chronic iritis. Perhaps she would

benefit from AP too.

I've often wondered whether or not she could have passed the

strep bacteria on to me when she had me a several years after the

systemic strep infection, even though she didn't have any

symptoms of an infection. Thought it might explain why I was such

a sickly child, hospitalized for pneumonia at 6 months of age and

twice yearly tonsillitis infections up until I reached the age of

9, when I developed juvenile psoriatic arthritis. Interesting

that the bouts with tonsillitis stopped after I developed the

arthritis.

So in answer to your question...yes, I really do believe there

could be a link betweem rheumatic fever and the onset of RA and

other rheumatic diseases.

~Kyla

> > From: " Ana D. Willson " <ana@...>

> > My question to all out there is: does

> > anybody know if there is a link between having had rheumatic

fever as a

> > child, and then developing RA as an adult? Thanks.