My 12 year old son has had Mesenteric Adenitis twice now. He is currently suffering and it can be very severe. Not all cases are so however.
The first time he was at the far end of the spectrum and had almost 12 months of school. He started with a sore throat and about 2 weeks later the stomach pain started. He was barely able to get out of bed at all and was completely exhausted. Prior to this he was a fit, healthy boy taking part in lots of sporting activities. He was tested for Coeliac but apparently these tests showed he did not suffer from this condition. The doctors were extremely unhelpful, consultants far worse than the GP. I was pretty much ridiculed when I suggested food intolerances, however we now follow a gluten and lactose free diet.
I was lucky enough to find an amazing guy who was medically trained but doesn't work in the NHS as he does not agree with the practices. He found immediately that my sons diaphragm was not working correctly and was able to rectify this, the difference from the boy that walked in to the boy that walked out was nothing short of miraculous. He was asking to play rugby at the weekend. I fail to see how 4 so called consultants have missed this.
This man is able to relief the bloating my son suffers by touch only. He was severely bloated at one point. It was he who suggested gluten and lactose free diet. It does take about a month to see the results but well worth sticking with it as the pain lessens with time as the lining of the small intestines repair itself. The advice on Coeliac Uk is spot on.
Unfortunately 2 years later my son contracted the same sore throat virus again which has set off this second bout. He has again had some very severe symptoms. He is now taking Echinacea to boost his immune system. The one marketed by Vogel is apparently the best but it isn't for young children. The recommendation is that he stops when well and later in the year he takes this the prevent him contracting the virus.
I think my advice would be don't dismiss alternative treatments, even though it is unlikely your GP will support this route, and examine your diet. If the intestine is damaged then it needs careful treatment with suitable foods. Acidic foods, in addition to gluten and lactose, are best avoided when the symptoms are bad.
The problems with my sons diaphragm I feel would have been noticed by others such as a sacrocraniologist or a chiropractor. I felt the medical profession just were not interested in a resolving my sons problems, one even went so far as to say it was in his head and he just needed to get back to school. A total disgrace to his profession.
We made the mistake of mentioning to one of the consultants that the his older sister had been a bit of an attention seeker and they could not see beyond this. However she has similar, more severe issues with food which have been self diagnosed due the the inability of the medical profession to recognise this. They just gave her the cop out diagnosis of IBS, no further tests or actions to confirm this. She ticks most of the boxes for coeliac disease.