Urgent paediatric referral - any words of wisdom?

[Jo2508]

My dd (9) has just been referred by GP to paediatrician for further investigation/blood tests. She has been unwell for over 3 weeks now with fatigue, fever, aching joints and weight loss (3 kgs in 3 weeks). I am trying not to panic but feeling very worried and just wanted to know if anyone had any similar experiences or words of wisdom. Thanks very much

Tabitha so sorry to hear your son had leukemia. I hope he is ok now? What a horrible phone call that must have been. I hope you don't mind me asking, is it standard procedure to analyse the blood tests straight away and if it is serious, as unfortunately in your case, to give you the results almost immediately?

I believe it is. They wouldn't sit on bad results and wait for an appointment to tell you - they start the ball rolling immediately! I know that if a GP surgery has sent off bloods and there is a serious issue the GP is phoned pretty quickly too.

Although it was a horrible shock at the time, he is doing really well. He's two years into three years of treatment now and you really wouldn't pick him out as 'the poorly one'.

I hope that all of this is 'just' a particularly nasty virus and that she is feeling better soon xxx

Yes that is true re speed. My GP says that if there is anything nasty you will hear about it really quickly. I don't know what the situation is in the Uk but in the paediatric hospitals here the bloods are normally back within the hour.
I had been worrying about leukaemia re ds but they ruled it out within an hour.
Tabitha glad your son is doing well.

How is your little girl, Jo ? I hope she is feeling a bit better.

Bless you for coming back and asking Foodie, really appreciate it. I thought she was getting a bit better over the weekend but went downhill again this evening with headache, fever and aching joints again. So still really worried, just hate seeing my little girl like this.

Are they particular joints?

Dd1 has had a very sore ankle for six weeks. No rhyme or reason. She has just been diagnosed with arthritis. Not a great outcome, but it could have been worse. It can be accompanied by fever. I don't know too much about it yet as she was only diagnosed on thursday, but the other things they were looking at was a post-viral infection.

Same dd last year had bad blood results. We were called back pretty quickly by the gp to advise us to be retested.

Jo you poor thing. Your story has struck a chord with me as I remember so well that terrible feeling of not knowing what was wrong but seeing my child ill in front of me.

The fact that you haven t heard back re bloods is surely a good sign.

Sounds very like glandular fever.

is she attending school?
after 15 days absence she will be entitled to home tutoring or other help.
ask school to refer her to the relvant LEA person
www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-for-children-with-health-needs-who-cannot-attend-school

hope you get some answers soon.

call gp and ask for the results

ask to go back to paed

Thank you all very much for your replies, I am very grateful. The blood test results have come back and apparently there are some borderline results, which the paediatrician will discuss tomorrow at the appointment. So I'm still worried! She has been going to school, but is definitely not well and her teacher rang me today to say that she is very tired and emotional in class. I am keeping everything crossed that it's not serious, I still don't know if the GP has seen the results and would have warned me if it was, or is leaving it for the appointment.

I think that sounds quite comforting, Jo . If the bloods showed anything serious you would have been in hospital the evening you had the bloods taken.

Hope all was ok today Jo?

So, turns out she has tonsillitis and urine infection!! So relieved, but still can't understand how 2 trips to GP missed this, causing a lot of unnecessary worry. Thank you so much for everyone's support on here, it has been amazing. A lesson learned as well - no more googling symptoms. Thanks again x

Brilliant news!

I'm so pleased she has tonsillitis and a urine infection (one of those bizarre sentences you never thought you'd say)!! I've been checking in to see how you got on so I am very happy to see that, whilst not very pleasant, it is relatively minor.

Steer clear of Dr Google in future!!

Oh brilliant news. I mean that in the best possible way! So delighted you have answers!

Definitely never google, not unless you are wearing incontinence pants!

And I did say infection was most likely did I not?

I can't help normally being right

And you are quite right, the first thing we did in A&E with unwell kids is check the urine as it makes kiddies so unwell but not always madly obvious.

Pleased all is well and next time remember 99 times out of a 100 it's usually something simple, thank goodness.

Good news!! How is your daughter today Jo2508?

I know, I know, googling is the worst thing to do, I have learned my lesson. Antibiotics seem to be kicking in and dd much brighter today although still very tired. But a huge weight has been lifted from my mind and I am so thankful it was nothing more serious. Thank you all so much again for taking the time to respond and enjoy the lovely weekend weather with your children :-)

Hello, I'm back unfortunately. Dd still not well, seemed to get better the week after taking antibiotics but then back to feeling tired, chills, sore throat, and now headaches every night. Went back to the doctor a week ago who said she may well have glandular fever, but didn't seem interested in doing blood tests again. Although hers were clear, he said glandular fever is often not picked up on tests.
So now trying to figure out ways to get her better-have got good quality multi-vitamin, flaxseed and sambucol, which she is taking every day but does anyone have any other suggestions for boosting immune system or how to manage/treat glandular fever?

Big thing for glandular fever is rest. IS she trying to attend school? Tbh given that there is very little left of the term anyway I would either keep her off or agree that she will do 10-12 or something similar.

Sorry to hear your dd is still not well Jo . Did they actually test for glandular fever? I think it's quite specific and not a test that would be run in a general check up.

Just a thought but when my DS was 10/11 he had the same sort of thing and eventually they took a throat swab and he had some kind of bacterial throat thing and a virus .he had been off school for weeks by the time it was discovered ,so it may be worth getting them to swab her throat . At the time they thought he had glandular fever ( he eventually got that at 17) . Hope she feels better soon .

It took ages for dDs DF's glandular fever to be confirmed.

I think she was 10, so pretty much your DDs age and a similar story of being in and out of school with a sore throat and viral symptoms that kept coming back.

I hope you get to the bottom of it soon and she starts to feel better soon.