Ongoing tummyache - appendix?

[foibles2011]

Hi all,
I know no one here can give medical advice I'm just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation or has any ideas at all. My Dd who is 8 was admitted to hospital in December with what was initially believed to be appendicitis, she had severe right sided stomach pain, nausea and was very pale and lethargic, and nearly passed out at school, after lots of tests etc they found protein in her urine and an enlarged spleen but decided that whatever was going on was viral and she was discharged after 48hrs. At a hospital follow up a very unhelpful dr insisted she was just constipated (which she never has been) and gave her a powdered drink to use daily which only caused diarrhoea so we stopped it after a few days. She then had a review with pediatrics who did a round of blood tests which showed a vitamin d deficiency but nothing else.
But still 6 months later she is having the same stomach ache on and off for a few days at a time on the lower right hand side radiating to her belly button, bad enough to wake her up through the night at times and stop her eating and we have no answers. She doesnt show any signs at all of puberty and there is no underlying stress that could be causing it and when it happens you can see in her face that she is not well - she is pale with bags under her eyes and stooped because of the pain.
I feel like the drs think I'm a neurotic mum 😔 I just want her to be ok. Shes always been such an active girl and shes being so brave about it but it's really getting to her now. I'm worried it's a grumbling appendix but the gp laughed in my face when I suggested it and said that it wouldn't last 6 months so I'm at a loss. Any ideas? Any one?
Concerned mummy xxx

Disclaimer: I am NOT medically qualified and I don’t know if anything the doctors told us would still be relevant

This reminds me so much of when I had appendicitis almost 40 years ago. I was very much like your daughter in February of that year, Mum thought it was appendicitis but kept getting told no because I wasn’t being sick but I wasn’t eating so that wasn’t going to happen. It went away, I can’t remember how long I was ill for. Towards the end of the summer holiday I took bad again. I was walking doubled up because I just couldn’t right myself. Mum called the doctor out and the one thing he did that made him decide it actually was appendicitis was him pressing down where the pain was then releasing it suddenly. He asked if it had hurt more when he pressed down or when he let go, my answer was overwhelmingly when he let go! I still feel a bit sick now when I think about how much it hurt, but it was miles worse when he let go than it was when he pressed down on it

I really hope your little girl is better very soon 💐

I had something similar when my son was about 7. He would wake in the night crying in pain in his lower abdomen and often be sick. This would happen a couple of times in the night. To start with I thought it was a bug so starved him to get rid of it then he would be ok for a couple of days then without warning the pattern would start all over again. I called the doctor out in the middle of the night who tested for appendix problem and it wasn’t that. I went backwards and forwards to the gp. My son was loosing weight I was desperate for answers. On the 5 th cycle again in the middle of the night exactly the same thing happened again. In desperation I phoned the children’s A and E department. The fabulous nurse listened to the whole thing then said it’s rare but possible to have a bad infection of tapeworm. My son thought I was mad checking his bottom but there it was. The next day I was at the gp surgery before it opened. The doctor said when I explained it all. Well yes his illness had been going on for a while. Anyway one dose of medicine for everyone in the household. And that was it all better. He’d picked it up from playing with a greyhound that my husband owned.

@teapotcollection that's really interesting about the pain being worse when the pressure was released. I wonder . . .
@ahwig I hadn't even thought of worms - I did worm both of them (both children) last summer with tablets from the pharmacy as a mum at my sons preschool said her son had had them - maybe it's worth doing!
Thank you for the replies! Xxx

My dd was the same- we were sent to A&E about 3 times with suspicion of appendicitis. Turned out that she gets stomach pain when she's anxious (abdominal migraine) and also when she's low on vitamin D-which she was extremely low.

Ds has just had his appendix removed. With him it started as tummy ache, got worse, including fever, within 24 hours and then he deteriorated further (according to the medical notes) over the next 12 hours.
I think grumbling appendix is something that has been generally discounted in the UK.