Update

We saw the rheumatologist again today and don't have a ton of news, but things are not worse either. Alex is finally feeling a bit better- only a few complaints today of his fingers and shoulders hurting. The rheumatologist strongly feels that this is related to the strep infection. She thinks it is most likely rheumatic fever since the arthritis seems to be jumping around and not really sticking to any one joint. There isn't a specific test that can just tell us for sure that is what this is- his "long term" strep test was right in the middle- not extremely high, but not normal either. The good thing is that the arthritis should be completely gone relatively soon (within a week or 2). The bad thing is, we need to watch his heart closely as rheumatic heart disease can be a permanent problem after rheumatic fever. We see the cardiologist on Wednesday and will likely have frequent follow ups with him. Until we get his heart "cleared" he needs to stay out of gym class, but otherwise went back to school today. Now the decision is, how long to keep him on prophylactic antibiotics. At least a couple of years, but some studies suggest until he's in his 20s. That is a long time to remember to take a medication twice a day. We will probably opt to have him get a shot once a month instead just so we don't ever forget since missing even one dose could have pretty significant consequences should he ever be exposed to strep again. For now, he's on oral penicillin and we will see what the cardiologist would recommend. The rheumatologist also said that we could get another opinion and that she would also be talking with some of her rheumatology friends to get other suggestions for us. Truth is, we may never know exactly what this was, but we still need to make a decision based on what we think it was/is. Alex will continue on his Naproxen until the arthritis is completely gone, but hopefully this arthritis will not come back and will not have any long term effects on him. Chris and I both said that if all we come out of this with is a penicillin prescription for 15 years and a few more doctor visits, we are ever so grateful. This has been an extremely long week and we are so thankful to have a "kind of" diagnosis at this point. I'm sure we'll both sleep better after we get his heart all checked out on Wednesday. Thanks to everybody for all the prayers and cards! I promise to post something "non-medical" very soon.