2 months ago via a telephone consultation a nurse practitioner diagnosed my 6 year old as having fecal impaction, we were to begin a de-impaction regime, consisting of giving huge daily doses of laxatives.
2 weeks in and lo is in agony, can’t move for pain, we immediately go to A&E where they X-ray and come back to confirm impaction, say the pain is because she is “significantly impacted throughout her intestines”. She is given a 500ml enema, held down, screaming in pain. She is autistic, has no understanding of what is happening to her.
We are sent home with even more laxatives.
For the next 2 weeks lo is writhing in agony, we fight daily to administer vast amounts of medication into her. We have multiple phone calls with the nurse who tells us to continue as lo is so impacted.
The pain gets so bad lo is shaking and vomiting. We attend A&E again. We’re told it’s because she’s so impacted, we need to increase her laxatives. We do.
Lo has been off school for 2 months. Can’t even get off the sofa such is her pain, she has lost 10lbs, doesn’t have the energy to sit up.
We finally get an emergency appointment with a gastric consultant, he reviews the X-ray from 5 weeks previous. He looks at us agog and begins apologising. He says the X-ray was normal. Lo wasn’t impacted, she never was. The X-ray was misinterpreted.
2 months of agony, fear, trauma. My autistic 6 year old weighs less now than she did 18 months ago. Her intestines are swollen and will need weeks to recover, if they do. She needs urgent kidney scans to check that her kidneys haven’t been permanently damaged. She is still in constant pain.
She is broken, I am broken, my family and relationship with DH has been irreversibly damaged due to the sheer stress and trauma of the last 2 months.
I just needed to get that out.