Really worried could it be some form of cancer or am I over thinking everything

[Johnson31]

Hi everyone I'm just looking for a little advice and reassuring I'm not going mad and it's all on my head.

My litter girl is 17 months old she was born prematurely at 33 weeks and weighed 3lb
She was discharged from NICU 4 weeks later

During her first few months she always had either an ear infection or chest infection and was constantly on antibiotics.

Fast forward to the beginning of August this year and she had a really bad episode of sickness doctors put it down to a viral infection

Now then end of August and she is still not right and hasn't been right since the beginning of August but things seem to be getting worse

These are some of her symptoms

Very pale skin looks washed out

Excessive sweeting

always tired

no interest in anything

very clingy

Very irritable during the day

Sleeping at night gone back to newborn days

for the last 5 days she has woken in the middle of the night at the same time screaming and is then sick even though shes eaten next to nothing all day

Complete appetite change and barley eats anything

Looks thinner can feel it when putting her nappies on also

Gone from being constipated to having a number of bowel movements a day that look like cley and smell very offensive

I know I am probably over thinking everything and I think i have developed some kind of healt anxiety after my 31 year old husband was told for 18 months he couldn't possibly have cancer as he was to young and turns out he has stage 3 bowel cancer

Any advice would be greatly appreciated
We do have a doctors appointment at 5pm but they always palm me of with it's viral should I push for blood test and if so which ones

Are you still under any follow-up with neonatology/NNU outreach/paediatricians? That's one port of call.

It's not necessarily "fobbing off" to find that young children have features of viral illnesses, it's the most common explanation. Everyone's job is to figure out the needles (serious illness) in the haystack. If GPs are in a lot of uncertainty, or getting worried vibes from parents, they are generally pretty happy to discuss / refer to the local Assessment Unit so that's one possible outcome. There isn't really a blood test specific for "cancer" which is a range of different diseases. In practice if the concerns are lining up that way a child of this age would need to go the Assessment Unit to have them anyway.

Discuss your specific worries with the GP, make your specific and general concerns known, listen to what they say; make a clear plan of what you should watch out for and when the next review should be. Write things down as it's pretty easy in a stressful situation not to remember everything.