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.

Same as me. It was classic appendicitis in the end. This honestly sounds like it too, radiating from belly button to hip.

My dd had similar - the no poop makes my wonder about intussusception (though that should have shown on scan) or stricturing Crohn's disease. My dd presented with intussusception - it's rarer in children older than babies and hard for them to diagnose. She had to have a resection. Subsequently turned out she has Crohn's.

I would specifically ask about both these possibilities.

Hope she is on the mend, my dd suffers with excruciating hunger pain but obviously passes a few hours after eating if she gets to that stage so it won't be the same for your dd. We have been sent to hospital by school on a number of occasions which gets rules out

However just wanted to share my sympathies, how is she today ??

Thank God I asked strangers on the internet for advice because MN has correctly “diagnosed” Dd with both coeliac disease and EDS on separate occasions in the past after 7 years of textbook symptoms and being fobbed off by various GPs. Obviously she was formally diagnosed by the nhs but only after going in and specifically saying “I think she may have coeliac disease and I’d like A blood test” and then “I think she has EDS, she scores highly on the Beighton test and I’d like her referred”.

ime strangers on the internet are a heap better!

Oh bloody hell! That's terrible!! you poor thing 💐

@Stath I hope they find what's causing it. It's so very difficult at her age, let alone with ASD. Too old for the children's ward & a bit scared alone on an adult's ward.

make a list from the thread & check that things have been ruled out.

my appendix pain settled a lot lower than I'd thought appendix pain would. It started in my chest and over 20 hours moved lower & right, I did think appendix st one point, but it moved much lower so I was thinking gynae. The GP suspected appendix and told me to go straight to A&E. Long wait... hours (pre covid) finally admitted & taken to the ward, it was late by then (11pm?!?!) so I was getting settled for the night, assuming they'd do more tests the next morning, when the surgeon came bounding in, saying he was still waiting for test results, but wanted to remove my appendix anyway. Having had it 50 years I asked if we couldn't wait, until we were sure & he said in his opinion no! So I agreed & by 2am I was back on the ward, appendix gone!! he said it was just as well as it was very septic and about to burst!

I hope they find what's wrong with DD & can get it sorted quickly without too much difficulty x