Doctors aren't listening to me, please help

[Rorpethy]

DS is 3, non verbal, so can't tell me what he's feeling. Been in hospital the last 24 hours due to very low blood sugar and dehydration due to D&V bug.

The last few days he seems to be in pain weeing. He's only been having 2 very big (fills the whole nappy) wees in 24 hours which is v v unusual for him.

I explained my concerns to 2 different doctors and multiple nurses. 1 dipped his urine sample but it came back clear and basically it was dismissed and every time it was mentioned I just got 'dip test was clear'. Especially as he's not had a temperature, no one would take it seriously.

Got discharged late last night and DS woke up in the middle of the night absolutely screaming the house down for 20 mins. Eventually he did a huge wee (filling the whole nappy) he was lying there smiling at me while I changed his nappy and went straight back to sleep.

I don't know what to do now. Something is obviously wrong but no one would listen to me. Does anyone know what this might be?

There could be other causes for the retention. I would take him back. This is an interesting link: Urinary Retention in Kids — Pediatric EM Morsels

Dip sticks are not entirely reliable. They need to be sent for proper testing. I would ask for that and say you know something isn’t right and you are not satisfied.

Could be a few things. See GP to kick investigations off. The issue in hospital is that the remit is basically addressing anything immediately keeping a patient in a bed. Doesn’t mean someone might not have anything wrong, just that it’s not connected with the need for current bed, so would be dealt with in the usual health system outside the hospital.

www.england.nhs.uk/patient-safety/marthas-rule/

Thanks everyone. Saw the GP this morning and they asked me to get a decent urine sample and take it in by the end of the day. Took it in earlier on so I'll see what happens. Feel a bit of an idiot as I burst into tears in front today the doctor!

Don't feel silly for crying. You know your son best and he isn't able to tell you what's wrong so you have to push/fight on his behalf. I can hear how frustrated you are.

So just heard back from the GP. They did dip stick test on the new sample I sent in which came back positive and they've sent it off to the lab too. I knew it.

Are you able to tell when he’s needing a wee? It sounds more like a temporary retention issue so if you can tell he needs one but is not doing one try feeling his belly just above his public bone. If it feels distended and hard see how your son responds to you feeling it or doing gentle massage or pressure. Sometimes this can happen because a child is eg. constipated or has been holding their wee in for a long time causing over distension…if he’s ND and has just been through a difficult experience in hospital and with d&v, the latter situation wouldn’t surprise me. Sometimes something warm on the tummy can feel nice or putting gentle pressure on their tummy whilst on the loo and using a tablet to distract whilst running the tap…. or putting them in the bath etc.

@Rorpethy oh i think you updated whilst I was tying…good, at least you know what you dealing with . Definitely try him in the bath then ,this always helped my daughter when she was scared to wee because of the pain.

Thank you @Tumot. So to further update, it was the receptionist that rang first as I got a second call from the actual GP. They said they saw signs of infection (nitrates?) but have sent to the lab for further testing so they've given antibiotics in the meantime but will update the treatment plan once the lab tests come back. Normally I'd have held off on the antibiotics until certain but because the results might not come back I til Monday, I'm going with the antibiotics as he's in so much pain I'm willing risk it.

So your suggestion about retention is definitely relevant as he does suffer from constipation. He will point to the front of his nappy when he wants a wee. He never used to do this until the pain started so I'm just assuming this is what he means? Sorry not making much sense here I'm exhausted, ill and stressed.

@Rorpethy ahh I really feel for you…luckily those days are passed for me with my kids but stressful memories! It’s quite understandable that a child who gets pain on peeing will try and hold it in as long as possible…apologies if I am presuming incorrectly that your ds is ND ( I know other reasons for being non verbal are possible!) it’s just that ND people can be under sensitive or over sensitive to body sensations hence some would absolutely have the capacity to hold their wee in for many hours …so trying to get him in a relaxed state somehow in order to let the wee go and hopefully the antibiotics will kick in asap! Good luck and I hope it’s over soon.

you perhaps already know the ERIC helpline but dropping it in here just in case it's useful to have specialists to talk things through with:
https://eric.org.uk/helpline/