Please help: DD in hospital with mystery abdominal pain.

[Stath]

DD (16) has had what we thought was a UTI. She felt generally unwell and has had lower right abdo pain that’s been increasing for a week.

Ended up being admitted to hospital as she couldn’t keep any meds/fluids down so given iv antibiotics and fluids plus antiemetics.

The pain has been getting worse. Her bloods have shown a decrease in infection (her uti weeing symptoms disappeared after a couple of days) but an ultrasound and now an mri haven’t found anything dodgy apart from enlarged lymph nodes (so maybe Mesenteric Adenitis?)

Pain relief hasn’t stopped it. She’s on paracetamol, ibuprofen and tried oral morphine and then tramadol. The last two had the effect of making her ‘still feel the pain but being so out of it she didn’t care’.

Now been given oxycodone which makes her feel off her face but still has breakthrough pain and doesn’t seem to last very long.

Needless to say, she’s absolutely fed up. Gynae are seeing her tomorrow but I understand that if it’s endometriosis then it can only be definitely diagnosed through a lap not imaging.

Ruled out an ectopic pregnancy and now she’s responding to antibiotics they don’t think it’s appendicitis.

Does anyone have any knowledge or advice? She’s desperate to be home and back to normal but the pain is literally doubling her over 😞

Cheers.

Gallbladder perhaps? She's quite young but the right sided pain can be a symptom.

I'm sorry to hear she's feeling so unwell. Is she able to keep any food or liquids down? How are her bowel movements?

Definitely not appendix? I've read stories on here of it being missed on imaging but later found to have been very bad once operated on.

Could she have had a burst ovarian cyst? I had one recently and the pain was excruciating.

Hope she feels better soon!

I'm assuming they have ruled out appendicitis?

I hope they can find the source and successfully treat it

The pain’s radiating from her belly button down to her right hip. I actually started with gall bladder pain in my teens and was fobbed off for years until an eventual scan which had it whipped out when I was 18.

My pain was higher up, went into my upper back and was affected by different foods. Could the pain be that low? Referred pain?

Thanks. She can keep food down with the antiemetic but her appetite has decreased. She went for 5 days without a poo but then has had diarrhoea today after being given laxatives. Thought her lack of poos was due to a combination of not much food/morphine/being sick and ‘shy’ bowels due to not being home.

Could be appendix - they should do a scan to check. My son had a mystery pain similar last year, happened 3 times 3 months apart. A scan showed some inflammation in the lower bowel / appendix area. Not happened since Christmas now touch wood.

gallbladder pain is typically a lot higher up. Hope you get to the bottom of it

My brother had similar symptoms and inflamed gall bladder and hepatitis were suggestions for him. Hope your DD gets well soon.

Get them to check her cortisol levels. It’s extremely rare but Addison’s disease often presents as severe abdo pain with sickness / upset stomach in teens.

DD had this aged 14, and was literally screaming in pain. Turned out to be an ovarian cyst.

I’m not sure why they would rule out appendicitis as it’s responding to antibiotics. I went in twice with excruciating right sided lower quadrant pain, once when 36 weeks pregnant and once at about 5 weeks post partum. Both times I was diagnosed with it being my appendix and both times I was treated with antibiotics. They (understandably) weren’t keen to operate at 36 weeks and I didn’t want to be operated on when breastfeeding a tiny baby. Both times the antibiotics sorted me out and my appendix still lives on to fight another day!

I was thinking ectopic pregnancy but they have ruled that out.
Has she had an endoscopy or a colonoscopy?
Hope they figure it out soon.

My daughter had similar symptoms with a Meckel's diverticulum - she didn't have any bleeding which is a common symptom. It's rare, and usually presents younger, but worth asking about. Notoriously difficult to pick up on scans. My daughter needed a bowel resection.

Agree also sounds like it could be gynaecological - is it the first time she's had these sort of symptoms?
Hope she's much better soon

Have they not spoken about doing a laparoscopy? Some things can be missed on scans and only seen when actually looked at. Appendicitis being one, but there are quite a few other things.

I wouldn't have thought endometriosis would cause that sudden severe pain to the point morphine isn't helping, burst ovarian cyst maybe but not sure what else.

My friend had gallbladder issues that presented like gynae pain for years.

For my DD these symptoms added up to an ovarian cyst wrapped around the ovary. She had to have it removed. She has had 2 children subsequently

Assume they've tested for covid? My dd was in hospital with this presenting as severe tummy pain recently. It attacks the glands there. Whatever it is, I'm sure the docs in hospital will get to the bottom of it before us Mumsnetters! Wishing her a speedy recovery - such a worry.

Twisted colon

That sounds like an ovary. Hopefully gynae will have the answers. Hope your daughter gets well soon!

This could have been me in my teen years. I eventually had a big ovarian cyst removed, but it didn't fix the pain.

Appendicitis kept being ruled out until eventually a surgeon said let's just take it out.

I had a retrocaecal appendix that had adhered to lots of my internal organs. It was over 15inches long! And strangling me from the inside.

Because it had adhered to other things, they couldn't see it in the scans.

Sounds like they're taking it seriously. Just don't be fobbed off if you think it's not sorted but they want her out.

DD had very similar symptoms, which turned out to be a twisted ovary. It was missed on her first visit to hospital because they didn’t think it was worth doing a scan. Two days later, they did the scan and admitted her for keyhole surgery the following day.

Sounds like when I had appendicitis

Sounds like an ovary issue but also maybe pancreatitis? I had that as a teenager and it was absolute agony!