PA, can it be diagnosed without showing the swelling?

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I can't remember if I have posted anything here or not about my daughter. She is

8 and has had P since she was three. She has two syndromes and one makes her

joints appear a little larger. She has complained of joint pain for about a year

now, mostly in her right knee and her left foot. She has nail involvement in all

fingers and 4 or 5 toes. She had a finger tip that hurt her so badly it woke her

up very early on sat morning. She had a hard time using silverware to eat with.

The ped rheumy we saw a year ago gave her naprosyn (script) to use. I called her

a couple of weeks ago about the same issues we saw her with before (the knee and

foot). She says she just doesn't think that my daughter has PA.

It took 24 hours or more for the pain and redness to go away in her finger tip.

I don't know what else to do or where to go because if no one sees the swelling

they aren't going to diagnose her. She never did blood work at the time we saw

her because she had just had other blood draws for her hypothyroidism.

I am down to not giving her the naprosyn because it stops important things from

happening, and leaves her with constipation. I am putting heat patches to help

ease the pain, and if it gets bad enough I give her ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I think I need another ped rheumy that

will look past the obvious " you have to have swelling " thing...