DS had the first episode fairly badly. We were out for an afternoon long walk in a local woodland (mostly playing, not serious walking). On the way back home, he started slowing down walking to a level I had to drag him back to home. Only when we got home, I realised he actually became a bit lethargy, if not near fainting. He didn't realise he's not well until he had to lie down. Then the tummy ache started. He remained lying still for the rest of the day before being sent to bed after a quick meal.
From then onwards, the tummy ache has become intermittent for a whole week. But no fever, no vomit, no nausea, no diarrheas. Just tummy ache around his belly button. Despite the first episode was a bit scary, he seemed completely normal in between each mild episode. He ate as usual and slept fine. So we thought just keeping an eye.
It got a bit better after a week. Then again on the Friday afternoon, we went out for a walk. This time, he came home alright. But there was another relatively severe tummy ache on Saturday morning. It subsided after some lie down. But by evening time, he's all himself again. Over the course of the following week, the tummy ache like last time, happened a few times irregularly but less intense than Saturday.
I didn't notice there might be a pattern in relation to our going out. So when the weather was really good on Wednesday, I took him out just for a short walk. This time we walked really slowly and didn't go far. We then mostly stayed at one spot played with some stream from the rain water before heading back home (less than 1 mile). But his tummy started hurting right after we got home. This time it took some Calpol plys 3 hours to bring the pain under control. I gave him some nurofen before bed just in case. But he woke up on Thursday with a bad tummy ache so bad that we had to carry him downstairs and to the loo. But again, he was eating fine and no other symptom except the tummy pain. But this time, he said the pain was on the right lower part under his belly button. This made us think if it's appendix issue.
We then called our GP. The nurse initially suggested might be grumbling appendix. She got hold of a doctor to see him in the afternoon. We then saw the doctor who after examination agreed it might be grumbling appendix and wrote a referral letter to A&E. When he finally got checked out by the A&E (a nurse and 2 doctors, according to DH), the doctors excluded appendicitis and quite a few other possibilities. In the end, he suggested the most possible explanation is constipation! DH wasn't entirely convinced (either am I), but he saw the doctor did check very thoroughly. So he only requested for a couple sachets of Movicol to clean DS's bowl before coming to any conclusion. DS had it yesterday and had a very loose stool this morning. Since then, I kept pressing him to have water and gave him plenty veggie (which we always did anyway).
I'm not convinced those severe episode could really because of constipation. But without other obvious symptoms, it's really difficult for anyone to look into it any further.
I was frightened by the episode on Thursday and the possibility of him having to have appendix operation in the middle of a pandemic. I honestly bursted into cry when he was at A&E with DH while I was at home with his baby brother. Felt really awful...hence want to know if any mumsnetter can provide some wisdom...