DD recently has been getting really difficult to wake up in the morning. She is five years old and her bedtime is seven. Mostly she is asleep by 7:15. I wake her up approx 6:45/7:00 in the morning so we can get ready to leave the house, so nearly 12 hours sleep a night.
For a few weeks she was complaining every now and again of a tummy ache, took her to the docs who said UTI and she had a course of antibiotics.
This week she has become extremely clingy, difficult to wake up in the morning, very emotional, and has been going to bed sooner and sooner each night, and getting more difficult to wake in the morning. She's also a bit off her food, one day this week she had a slice of toast for breakfast, at lunch she ate half a sandwich, and tea she had half a toastie, and she didn't want anything else.
Yesterday she had spent nearly 45 minutes crying at the childminders house before I picked her up, she alternates between saying nothing is wrong / she's just tired / she's worried the new baby will be smelly (I am 35 weeks pg, but up til now, she's seemed fine at the idea of having a sibling). I took her home last night, she was in bed and asleep at 5:45, she slept until 7:10 this morning. I have picked her up, and apparently she has been asleep "several times" today in class, slept for an hour at the childminders, and is currently lying in bed now.
I did try to get her in our docs, but they cannot see her until next thursday.
In these cirumstances, WWYD? DH says to ring nhs direct, but I'm not sure if we're just being paranoid. Any advice would be appreciated. Some people have suggested that she may be naturally worried about the new arrival, and this is what is making her a bit emotional, but surely wouldn't put her off her food and make her sleep excessively?
Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.
Children's health
Quite concerned about DD, what would you do?
ElfOnTheTopShelf · 14/04/2011 17:42
I have been lurking around (sounds sinister) and was wondering how you were all getting on. I hope the results are helpful. Best wishes 
.
She is 7 months into chemo, currently having the really intensive bit. She's managed to stay out of hospital this time though, so I'm really hopeful she manages the next few weeks without too many problems although she's been delayed at the moment as her counts are too low to continue. But once she gets past this bit, she is onto milder chemo and we can start trying to go back to normal. We are hoping she will manage to phase back into school in September and that means I will eventually get back to work myself. Treatment for girls lasts just over 2 years. She has ALL.
She also had ups and downs. Some days she was normal, and others she was flagging. We now know it is because her bloods were fluctuating and she will have been falling anemic. However, she had frequent blood tests over this time and they were always normal! We were told it was a fluke that someone more experienced was looking at her blood in January and recognised the leukaemia blasts in her blood. I think cancer tests have to be specifically requested. I had a cancer scare a couple of years ago myself, and I remember the test forms were extremely specific. Routine blood tests don't check for it apparently. Her white counts were the opposite of what they'd expected too. I think they were slightly high - indicating infection - but the specialists would have expected them to be low with leukaemia (can't remember exactly as it was a blur of tests and things being thrown at us).
All I did was take her to A&E and say I'm really worried, and it went from there. She had shown an enlarged liver on scans taken whilst she was abroad (we now know leukaemia causes organs to enlarge) and she was being a bit sick, but not that frequently. The main worry was the lethargy and tiredness, and aching joints. She didn't particularly bruise either, but this is a symptom of low platelets in the blood which is also a symptom of leukaemia.
As I said before though, many of this symptoms can also be attributed to other blood disorders and illnesses. If you are very worried, go to A&E. If you want to give your GP another shot, ask them to refer you to children's medicine at the hospital. Meanwhile, if anything changes or you become more concerned, take her to hospital. I felt I had to fight to get a diagnosis. When I have spoken to other parents in children's cancer, many of them said the same - it is rare, and often dismissed as overly-concerned parents. Sometimes it might be, but sometimes it can be more serious - as my DD shows. You must trust your own instincts and do not worry about upsetting people within these institutions, ultimately it is your DD, your family and that is far more important than bypassing your GP.
My GP has never once mentioned that day. I spoke to him on the phone from outside the surgery as he wouldn't see DD and he said (after another pale, lethargic sick episode at school) he thought it might be colic 
and to pop and see him later on that day. I looked at DD in back of car, all pale and poorly, and thought sod it and went to hospital. I am so glad I did.
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
I hope you are okay elf. I was concerned about posting my story as I didn't want to upset you. It's a really difficult situation as it could be age, or a series of viral infections (those milder things that people get when the doctor doesn't really knows what it is ). My post is an extreme example of what can happen. I just wanted to encourage you not to worry about challenging what you have been told.
Many of us have been brought up to respect authority figures, like GPs, and to regard them as experts. However, this isn't always the case, but I know how difficult it can be to challenge them on what they say. I avoided a direct confrontation by going to A&E myself. Another way would be to go en masse to the GP with your DH/DP or parents for back up. Zipzap's tactic is sound - most people would fear making an error if it has been recorded.
I do hope both you and you DD are alright. It is an awful position to be in.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.