Daughter 8 years old osteomyelitis

Bones, joints and muscles
1

My daughter just finished treatment for osteomyelitis in her tibia. She di Vanco for 5 days in the hospital and finished out with an an IV antibiotic via a picc . Now not even a week after having the Picc removed she is complaining of pain again. She originally has been seeing an orthopedic dr is there another specialist I should take her to? How often does osteomyelitis come back .......lost here

We live in a very rural area but I am wondering if I need to seek a referral to Children's hospital?

2

Hi Kiley.Not much worse than a child having such a condition. I will tell you what I know about personalities. There is the way the condition progresses in children and differently in adults.All of my reading was how things went with adults. The most telling way in regards to how a case is going to end up depends on how quickly it was diagnosed and how accurate the initial treatment was.Average time between infection and diagnosis is one month in adults(it was almost exactly one month for me)The disease is called insidious. Meaning it can be hard to initially diagnosis and hard to tell if a person has relapsed.You can relapse with obvious symptoms or very hard to detect symptoms. I have read that 2-4 out of 10 adults relapse.One thing about relapse for me is if it does not get serious enough to be hospitalized I pay out of pocket for at home treatment I suggest you really read heavily about the condition, paying most of your attention to odteomyelitis in children as it differs than with adults.One thing for sure,it is not a good infection to get but if caught early and treated correctly the outcome can be good.

3

Hi Kiley.It seems my smartphone auto corrects the word odteomyelitis, incorrectly

4

I had this take over by body at age 13. It was also in my ti

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I had this since I was 13 . Was unable to get rid of it for many years. It was also in my tibia. It was all the way from ankle to knee. I had many operations to no avail. In my 40's I was gong to have the leg removed. I was told there was another operation they could try it was called a muscle flap. They removed the calf muscle from the back of my leg and wrapped my tibia in it. This provided additional blood flow to the bone to combat the infection. I still have pain from so many operations but I no longer have any drainage. Ask your doctor if this is something that my help your daughter. Good luck . Let me know what you find I would be interested because it is located in the same place as mine was and I had to deal with drainage for over 30 years.

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Hi kiley, first im sorry to read about your daughter having osteomyelitis, which is a bone disease which also effects the surrounding tissue.

For peace of mind for your daughters sake , if your not happy with the dr, s , results , diagnosis or find the explanation confusing and feel you need to know more, i would insist on having your daughter if not already done , to be referred to have these tests done to find the severity of the osteomyelitis she has , ie, acute osteomyelitis, as long as its caught and diagnosed as acute osteomyelitis early enough, the normal treatment before any antibiotics are prescribed is to have a biopsy of the effected area done to identify the pathegen/germ because only specific antibiotics will work against certain germs, the treatment is normally done via iv over 4 to 6 + weeks depending on severity, sometimes longer doses are neccasary, chronic osteomyelitis is far more serious if not diagnosed sooner , the treatment can be more evasive, consisting of debibement surgery , to remove dead or dying tissue/bone, im not trying to scare you mind kiley , osteomyelitis is one of those diseases unheard of by so many people , it goes back many , many years, i myself aas diagnosed with chronic osteomyelitis in march 2013, in july 2013 i had my left leg amputated as it had become life threatening when diagnosed, it had been missed for over. 15 years by the drs at the hospital . this is why i say keep on at your daughters gp, seek second opinions from a different dr , osteomyelitis can be difficult to diganose, but the tests i mentioned and a biopsy will help answer a lot of your questions, .

I try to come on here as often as i can, so dont mind supporting you and your daughter,

Be true to yourself and dont be fobbed of.

Regards billy

7

Apologies kiley , i missed out what tests your daughter could be referred for if you feel your not happy with things as they are ,

1. Mri

2. Ct.

3. Blood tests

4. Nuclear medicine injection test

5 xrays. Normal

6. Biopsy

You can read a lot of what ive written in the past on here kiley, im not an expert or a dr. Just a victim of ignorance

Regards billy.

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Thank you Billy,

Initially she had an MRI and a biopsy. The culture of the bio said she has Staphylococcus A. They treated with antibiotics accordingly via IV/picc line for 6 weeks. But my concern is that not even a week after she completed treatment the pain is back and small fever compared to her 105 temp she had in the beginning.

I think the Dr. Is fairly competent he did catch it pretty fast. But if it is back or never really went away I believe we should see a specialist, I am just not sure they type of specialist we should see? There definitely us not a lot of information online I have been able to find about pediatric osteomyelitis.

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Hello kiley,

Apologies it's been a while since I last posted on here, I'm sorry reading your last post saying your little girl was still having some issues, hopefully things are better now,

You mention your daughter was still in some quite bad pain after treatment, what kind of pain , does the area where the pain comes from swell up, does it change colour, does it hurt if you where to gently press down on the area with your thumb,

Depending on the severity i.e. Type of osteomyelitis, acute/mild/chronic, the treatments can be quite varied, osteomyelitis is in my opinion, not expert, contracted thru either having surgical intervention for bone fractures where surgical pins/ fixatives/or plates have been used to help the fractures heal, or if there have been open wounds, there's always a high risk of infections from many sources,

There is quite a bit of information to hand on the internet, but don't take too serious, it come from many different sources and many countries,

What I would say is you need to seek further expert advice if you feel your not getting anywhere,

You say your daughter was diagnosed and treated for osteomyelitis by iv antibiotics, if your daughters symptoms are all coming from one specific area on her leg, even after treatment I would be asking your daughters go to refer her if not already done so for these tests,

1, MRI scan

2, CT scan

Normal X-rays do not really show any signs of osteomyelitis

I know you mentioned the pathogen/ germ causing the osteomyelitis, but if the osteomyelitis has been missed by any great length of time , the problem may lye deeper in her tibia, the MRI / ct scans will show more in depth if it has spread more they the tibia, I sincerely hope not , you mention you live in quite a rural area, well soon as you can, if you haven't already done this, demand to have your daughter referred asap for the tests etc, because the longer it's left the worse it will become, I do understand the worry your going they, I'm just trying to help the best I can, your daughter had her whole life in front of her, and I wish you both well and a speedy recovery for your girl

Kindest regards& best wishes. Billy

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Look into a muscle flap