Well it’s been a very long time since I’ve been here but it was always a great source of information and I’m hoping it will be again.

I have an 11 year old boy with CAH but my question actually pertains to my 13 year old non CAH daughter.  We have never had her tested to see if she is a carrier.  I have some concerns with her and can’t help but wonder if there is somehow a connection to CAH as she is a potential carrier of the defective gene.  I know over the years there has been much discussion about symptoms of carriers and even discussions of some studies to this affect.

Here is the issue.... over the past few years my daughter has had various situations come up that end up being bone related.  First she took a fall on some stairs and appeared to seriously injure her knee.  We ended up taking her to the emergency room to discover she has Bipartite Patella, no big deal in and of itself.  Then after skiing one winter she complained about both her feet really bothering her to the point of crying herself to sleep.  So off to a pediatric sports orthopedist we took her.... low and behold she has three things wrong with her feet.  Mind you all of the feet and the knee issues were there at birth.  Well since then we have begun working with an orthodontists as many teens do and besides a need for braces she has a growth issue with her jaw and the lower jaw is growing to fast.  Again not that uncommon.  Not to be disrespectful in anyway but think Jay Leno but not that sever (yet).  So she is being treated for that, successfully I might add.   Here is my "final straw", if you will.  A year ago she developed a lump in her jaw so off to the dentist we went and she was put on an antibiotic for an infection under a loose tooth that they felt was the problem.  Problem solved!  Well the lump is now back so off to the dentist we went again.  This time they find no reason for it and want a pathology done on it so they referred us to an oral surgeon.  Well we had that visit yesterday.  We have seen her before for some tooth extractions last summer before braces were put on.  She feels that my daughter has two things going on.   First the lump we found is a small liphnode that is slightly enlarged and isn’t painful and both the oral surgeon and our pedi aren’t concerned about it at present but the oral surgeon does feel it’s worth watching.... but she also found an abnormality in her jaw right by the liphnod.  She took ex-rays to confirm the lack of a tumor or growth in the tissue and fortunately that proved there was nothing.  She has scheduled her to have another type of specialty ex-ray done of her jaw bone to check for some additional bone growth that usually can be corrected once the underlying problem is corrected.  She did concede that it could be the braces and when they are removed it will go away. 

Based on all this information I mentioned my CAH son and all the various bone issues my daughter seems to have.  I mentioned that I have discussed it with my pedi (except this latest appointment yesterday) and she doesn’t seem concerned.  But the oral surgeon, not overly concerned herself, feels that despite my pedi’s thoughts I should contact my son’s endo and have her evaluated because she agrees that it’s odd to have so many bone related issues.

This being said I want to say that I don’t think my daughter has CAH so I’m not suggesting that.  She is extremely small for her age 57 inches and only 73 pounds at 13 years old. 

I hope I don’t sound like I’m overreacting because I don’t feel that way but I find myself wondering if there is some sort of connection and if I’m crazy in my thoughts that all these bone issues are odd.