Child with labyrinthitis - any ideas?

[marceline]

DS age 8 was sent home from school in December after suddenly feeling dizzy and nauseous. Initially I thought he had a tummy virus. But although e was never actually sick the dizziness and nausea have persisted so I took him to GP. At first I was told he had a middle ear infection, he had a course of antibiotics which he's just completed, but his symptoms have not really improved for about 4 weeks.
He frequently complains of loss of balance and feeling sick, blurred vision and not being able to concentrate. He was sent home again yesterday. I took him back to the doctors who thinks it may be labyrinthitis and referred him to the ENT clinic.
I just feel really sad for him as the frequent bouts of nausea and dizziness are really affecting his day to day life. The thing is sometimes he is completely fine and is able to play with friends for several hours. But it seems when it comes to going to school in morning his symptoms appear quite severe. I don't think he's faking any of it but i worry that he is really anxious about going back to school as he feels unable to concentrate and I think he works himself into a sort of panic which makes things worse.
Sorry about rambling - I'm really bad at this. Just wondered if anyone had any experience of this illness or any strategies that may work.

Another horrendous morning. He felt dizzy and sick first thing so I sent him back to bed. He seemed to have perked up around 10 so I sent him to have a shower and got him ready for school. He insisted he's still feeling terrible but dh thinks he needs to try and get through it as he does when he plays with friends or goes somewhere fun. So he had a full blown panic attack. I was trying to calm him down but DH has just taken him to school crying and hyperventilating.

Hi! Sounds awful. So worrying when they aren't well.
I think you should discuss a referral to Paediatrics with your GP. A lot of his symptoms fit labyrinthitis but really there are other things that should be excluded first. (ie neurological)
Most hospitals run a paediatrics urgent clinic that would see him within a few days.
Good luck. I hope he is ok today.

I also think you really need to get to the bottom of what is terrifying him about going to school.

The school were really helpful actually. DH met with the Learning Mentor who has a little centre in the school where children can go and have time out of they need it. DS started to feel a lot better as he was talking to her and drinking a Lucozade. She gave him a card that he can show the teacher anytime he feels unwell and needs to get out of class. I think the sense of having some control over the situation really helped him. Fingers crossed, I haven't had a call from school yet. I am meeting with the teacher at 3:30 - I have also been wondering the same thing 3littlefrogs. Usually he is quite open if he has any issues. I think he is very anxious about being sick - although he has not actually been sick since he's had this. And thinks he will get in trouble if he can't concentrate.

I spoke to the doctors again today, they are referring him to a pediatric clinic. I hope that comes through soon. DH thinks we should see an acupuncturist but I'm a bit . He swears they cured his ear problems as a child. Worth a try I guess...

School sound as if they are being really good so thats great, it could well be that its 50% physical problem & 50% worrying about the physical problems (being ill). My dd is 7 & has been ill for a year with what they suspect is chronic fatigue, she's always been shy & a born worrier but was very confident work wise. Since being ill & being off a lot she has changed completely, worries over every little thing probably due to lack of concentration knocking her confidence regarding her work. She worries all the time over feeling ill at school yet outside of school doesn't worry about feeling ill even though she can be doing things which will make her feel ill later. For my dd its thinking that people wont believe her & also what her classmates will think. She worries about being sick in front of people at school to the extent that she will be retching before going into school as she gets so worked up.

roundabout your poor DD. Are the school helping her with this in any way? I do think you're right about the psychological factor. DS's symptoms appear to be a lot worse if he is worried about having to go somewhere such as school imminently. At the moment we are trying to push him through this stage as it seems that the quicker he becomes active the sooner he feels better. It's a real struggle though as he really panics.

marceline - we have struggled with school throughout, lack of a diagnosis didnt help so she was treated as if it was school avoidance although they didnt do anything about that as such. Things are going better with school now although the damage has been done as over the year when she was physically ill it has now become a problem of school avoidance as well which I feel could have been avoided if it was dealt with differently. I am so pleased your school are being so helpful, the card is a great idea, my dd will just sit there feeling ill afraid to tell anyone as when she did last year nothing happened or was told "if you are ill you shouldn't be at school" or the worst was "if we sent you home everytime you felt ill you would never be here"

roundabout that is quite appalling that the school would respond that way to a distressed child! What about a change of environment, would a change of school be practicable?
We've had a pretty good day today, I'm hoping tomorrow won't be too traumatic - hoping the same for you!

marceline - Its a small rural school & I thought that would be more beneficial in our situation but seems they are hugely out of their depth. Things are going better now fingers crossed. We have the middle school system here so dd only has one more year after this before moving up so not worth moving her & to be honest I dont think she would cope well with that at all.
Hope your ds had an ok day today

marceline - how is your ds getting on?

Hi Marceline, I just read all these posts. I hope your ds is improving??? My ds has been vomiting , nauseous, dizzy and headache for 3 weeks now. Same possible diagnosis of Labyrinthitis. We are waiting hospital appointment for more checks and possibly an MRI. He has had basic brain function tests which were all normal...so now we wait. No school for two weeks and counting...it started after the 1st day of skiing during half term - I'm presuming major stress on the balancing nerves, maybe even the altitude...we are going to a Cranial Osteopath this evening, I just wondered how you got on with acupuncture or any other alternative therapies. Homeopathy has been really helping my ds with the nausea and he is eating normally again and stopped major vomiting, but mornings for him are really dire and he is SO white all the time. Hope things are getting better for you all :0)

hi to everyone i guess most of you will have had answers to problems posted here by now,but, my dd has been feeling ill ever since starting upper school, started with feeling nauseous which i put down to nerves, but it hasn't stopped. our local doctors surgery has short hours as a rural branch practice and getting appointments has been a nightmare, resulting in me keeping her home and ultimately in the school believing that it is avoidance rather than illness, over the last few weeks she has been complaining of dizziness and similarly to previous posts it is mainly in the mornings before school, i know that my keeping off in the past probably hasn't helped, but as i don't drive and the school is 3 miles away i have adopted a better safe than sorry principal, I am worried that she is missing a lot of school.

I know this is an old post but how long did it take for your son to recover?