Reactive arthritis

My son was diagnosed with reactive arthritis 18 months ago. He is in constant pain. There has never been a definitive daignosis of what started this off, possibly glandular fever. He was unable to attend school due to fatigue, pain, concentration issues (due to pain) and had a link ed tutor to get him through his GCSEs. Had a good spell during the summer and we were optomistic that things were at last on the way out. However, he is currently in the middle of a flare up affecting toes ankles, wrists, back elbows knees hips. He is currently on diclofenic as iprobrufen no longer works. This is not helping either. Wat is the next step??

Interestingly he had his appendix out in january and had huge doses of antibiotics that cleared his system and he said that was the best he had been for a long time. Every flare up starts with a sore throat and diaroeah(sp) on a 4-6 week basis.

He has now started A levels but is finding it hard to attend school due to the current flare up, the size of the school (at one point he suffered panic attacks) and we are looking into getting a wheelchair for use in school.

This disease is very difficult to get your head round, everytime we see a Consultant as mention a new sympton or joint problem, we are told that this is usual - in which case why weren't we told this at the beginning! We were also told that it would probably burn itself out within 2 years - is this hope or exxpectation?

AS he always gets sore throats should I suggest, or push for antibiotics (forget to mention that he is on mild ones for acne) or what.