is fever (38.5) and tummy ache a sign of appendicitis?

[saison4]

DD started with a fever and tummy ache this afternoon. pain more on the right side.

no vomitting or diarrhea though or anything else.

With appendicitis it typically starts in the middle before going to the right side, with temperature and D&V, is there any children at school/nursery with any stomach bugs?

I would get some out of hours advice to be on the safe side though.

It may be but children can often get tummy pain with viral illnesses also. I agree you should get her checked, as well as treating the fever & pain

Sore throat? Little red spots on the tongue? That with a fever and stomach ache are signs of bacteria tonsillitis.

Otherwise is the stomach ache focal or diffuse ie. Is it all over the abdomen or just in one part and all the rest is fine?
Diffuse is more likely to be a virus or constipation. Focal is more likely to be an actual stomach problem.

it's more of a diffuse pain the way she describes it. and yes, a few bugs going around. she seems a bit better but will ring OOH. thanks

Can you gently press around her tummy and see if it hurts to touch in any area? If it's appendicitis it will be very painful to touch in the area of the appendix.

Appendicitis symptoms are different for everyone... the only symptoms my dd had were a temperature and a very bad pain in the middle of her tummy ... no sickness AT ALL.

For a week she complained of a very sore tummy in the middle, she doesn’t usually complain but she just kept saying it was very sore, she didn’t do much - just sat on the sofa mostly (which wasn’t like her), and her temperature was high and wouldn’t budge at all with ibuprofen - not even 0.5 of a degree. This was very unusual. She had no D&V.

I went to the GP 3 times in a week - each time they said it was just a tummy bug. I knew it was much more. On the seventh day (the day before we were due to go abroad) I took her back as the pain had moved to her right hand side, but again he just said tummy bug. I took her home and within 5 minutes she screamed in agony and clutched her tummy. I stupidly drove her back to the GP who examined her and he said again it was just a tummy bug but said to take her to hospital given that we were going away the following day.

Went to hospital and they weren’t too concerned, took blood test, confirmed there was an infection but they didn’t know where. She stayed overnight and the following morning they took her for an ultrasound scan ... within 30 minutes she was in theatre! The surgeon later said she’s a very lucky lady, 3 more hours and she wouldn’t be here. The appendix was burst, severely infected and had an abscess.

They said she should have been climbing the walls in agony but instead she internalised everything and just remained very quiet the whole week - only ever constantly saying her tummy was very sore. She literally had nurses coming in to see her looking genuinely shocked and commenting on how she should have been screaming the whole time with the condition.

blossom ... dd was tender all over her tummy so pressing the appendix area won’t necessarily alert a parent to know it could be that.

A different scenario .... a friend of ours, grown up son, had a very sore tummy (middle) and was being sick constantly for a day. He had his appendix out that night.

Two totally different presentations of appendicitis, apparently because everyone’s symptoms vary so much, that’s why it’s difficult to diagnose.

I wouldn’t immediately think your dd has appendicitis OP, but I’d pop to the GP for advice. Hope she’s feeling better now though, and hope it was just a bug.

went to a&e in the end and had a few tests as doctors were concerned about appendicitis but it was false alarm. DD is much better today and very much back to herself. glad we got her checked out though.

Good she is better and it is wise to get advice, I didn’t want to say earlier when you first posted but DH cousin died after his appendix perforated, so really needs to be checked if any suspicion.