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Teen daughter complains of constant knee pain

My 13yr old daughter constantly complains that her knees hurt and occasionally her elbows. The doctor gave her some pain meds to take and told me that this is a normal symptom for her age. He stated that teens of her age have knee pain like this because, the femur area is growing and the muscles, tendons and ligaments are pulling the knee area. I am a bit suspicious of this. The pain meds prescribed did not help her either.

About 1mo after she turned 10, she got a blood infection called, Staphylococcus Aureus in her left ankle. This was a very serious terrible time for her. Treatment consisted of 7days hospitalization, a pic line to the heart, Surgery, home care by myself & a nurse to draw blood 2x a week. I had to administer medication to her every 8hrs using an IV machine that we had to take home & everywhere we went. Anyway, to make this shorter, I can't help but worry that maybe there is a connection. She did possibly get the staph infection again 1yr. after the treatment. It did not show up but that may be from the quick action of administered meds at doctors office and admittance to hospital for 3 days.

Any thoughts on this knee pain?
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Avatar universal
She hasn't been on pain meds since the Staph Infection back in 2006. Occasionally she will take a Tylenol or Advil but, nothing until the knee & elbow pain. Even then, she only took 1mo's prescription & I never refilled it. It was not a narcotic drug or any of that, just a mild pain releiver. She hardly ever gets sick except your occasional strep throat 1x a year or just a regular sore throat.

The doc did mention the Juvenile RA, I just need to take her back & let him know that this pain is still going on.

I will be doing that 2mrw. & ask about seeing a specialist.
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351246 tn?1379682132
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
The pain can be due to reactive arthritis. One thing you should notice is that when the elbow pain comes—does the knee pain decrease? If yes, then this is migratory polyarthritis and this can be due to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, rheumatic fever, SLE, Lyme’s disease, sarcoidosis, Whipple’s disease, Henoch-Schnlein Purpura, and bacterial endocarditis. Hashimotos thyroidits is another possibility. It can also be fibromyalgia and or chronic fatigue syndrome.
The best thing would be to consult a general practitioner or PCP or her pediatrician and try and assess what is the cause of the problem. Then proper referral for concerned specialist can take things further and get you proper treatment. Take care!
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Avatar universal
To look at it from a holistic point of view, the absolute worst hit from recovery is to create a dependency on pain medication. This is because suppressing pain will cause the body to not recognize that it has to heal (may it be fight infection/sickness). By "hiding" these ailments, this opens the door to a bunch of unwanted guests (bacteria, virus) that the body will not react to fight off. Just like how running a fever is healthy to cook the bug, a little pain is necessary for the body to put up a few red flags where the site of the pain is.

I would focus more on repairing the damage caused by her medications (I'm assuming she's on antibiotics) and to stop administering her drugs that will sterilize BOTH her and the bacteria. Because obviously the "bug sprays" aren't working. Look into PROBIOTICS, good bacteria naturally found in the gut that affect such things as digestion, immunity, and maturation. Also foods that promote immunity, such as garlic, broccoli, and oranges.

I would also get a new doctor. (Similar thing happened to me.)

Hope this helps
-Kyra
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