So many issues I don't know where to start- please help

[ICSH1]

Hi,

I'm really hoping someone can offer some words of wisdom or comfort. I've had a really crap summer with my 9 year old. At the start of the holidays he had pneumonia, then just after he recovered from that he fractured his wrist. Then he got a tic bite (though no rash or reaction and we got it out immediately). Now he's gone back to school and football (he's in an academy) he's EXHAUSTED and I'm panicking there's something wrong as he had most of the holidays without his normal sports so I thought he'd be raring to go. He seems way more tired than other kids (though his school days are 8-5 so probably a bit longer than others). He won't talk to me about it (he would tell you he was fine even if he had an arm hanging off...) and I don't know what to do for the best. There aren't any scary symptoms (no rashes or enlarged lymph nodes etc) but my mind is running away with me.

I don't know whether to get him help or help for my anxiety, My logical brain says its normal to be tired when going back to school and intense sport after a long time off but...I just can't seem to talk myself down.

Thanks for listening, I don't really have anyone else who understands.

x

A tick bite infected with Lyme Disease does not always exhibit the typical rash (around a third don't)

Please go to your GP for antibiotics asap. The earlier you take them, the more effective they are.

Fatigue is one of the main symptoms of LD.

www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/infections-and-poisoning/lyme-disease/

What Aurea said.

pneumonia is a really severe infection and its is understandable that after this alone it will take time to build up to full fitness.

Also if he has been off sport for 6 weeks this is also understandable.

you could ask the GP to run some bloods and check for any vitamin deficiencies to put your mind at rest.

Everyone in the UK should take vitamin D in the winter months so this may help with tiredness.

There are also cases of LD with the tick being attached for less than four hours.

Also is an incredibly long day, I think most children would be pretty tired, especially after the other illnesses and accident over the summer.

Ok I’ll make an appointment. He’s had no other symptoms (like rash or flu etc) but will get him checked

I do have very severe health anxiety which makes dealing with anything like this very difficult for me

DD1 had severe pneumonia aged 8yo. She was under a GP for about a year because of the amount of weight she'd lost, and wasn't gaining any. She was lighter than 3 years previously. She was tired and picked up anything going for at least 6 months. So that is a possibility.

Other thing is ds at 8yo had an unknown illness which we never got to the bottom of. He had broken his wrist that summer, and I remember noticing afterwards he seemed more tired.
But the issues really started in January, so I don't know if it was connected. He had tonsillitis, and never recovered. Every evening his temperature would go up and he'd vomit. If he did go to school, he'd be asleep by lunch time.
He went down to doing about 2-3 days a week at school at best, and coming home at lunch time. He'd often be asleep in the car before I'd started it.
He had every test offered-bloods, MRI etc and nothing was found (except he was allergic to dust mites). He just gradually got better. It did take a long time, and even now, nearly 10 years later, he does tend to catch things badly and they lay him out every time, and if his temperature goes up, then he vomits.
We think it was basically a post-viral thing and he just needed time to recover.
It was most of a year before he wasn't getting exhausted with normal living.

Oh in lots of ways this sounds so incredibly similar to my boy. The pneumonia came out of the blue and nothing has been quite right since. Although in the middle of all of this he’s had an absolutely massive growth spurt so it’s not impeding his growth at least. But that rings so many bells, thank you for sharing x

It really is and they are very active days too. Tomorrow he’s got an hour of PE, an hour of swimming, two hours of forest school and then he’s got to go and do 90mins of football on top of that

Yes I have always been a bit curious about getting his bloods done as he’s not the best eater and he’s so incredibly active. I’ve got no idea how to keep him on an even keel really

As well as visiting the GP and getting tests done, would you speak to the school, explain the situation, and ask if he can cut back on his physical / sports activities for a few months? It sounds like his body will need extra rest for a while. You may then need to reduce further if he is not back to his usual self. I don’t know what country you are in, but if UK, It’s also worth being aware that the UK lymes test is not very useful - it gives lots of false negatives (your GP won’t agree with this statement). There is a German blood test which is much more reliable, although you may need to organise this privately and pay a few hundred pounds, It will be worth it as infections that are not fully healed from can impact health for a lifetime.

Is he doesn't eat well does he take a multivitamin? Does he get enough protein? Could he be anaemic?

It might even be worth considering taking him out of school for a few weeks or months so he can fully recover. That would be better than having years of “post-viral fatigue”. See what his doctor says. 💐

Yes I give him a multi vitamin spray and he drinks a load of milk (along with yoghurt and cheese). He doesn’t like red meat really and tends to just want white fish or chicken so I have wondered about iron levels x

He’s not unhappy or unable to complete his normal day- his teacher says he’s fine and he’s getting through 4 hours of football in the week, extra singing lessons and 2 matches at the weekend and doing really well. He’s just very tired around those.

When you say "academy", do you mean a football academy? How many hours is he playing. No doubt everyone has lost their edge over the summer but, if he hasn't been able to do much exercise at all, he'll be really unfit but no doubt trying to train at full capacity. He'll be exhausted!

Yes a football academy- he has 4 hours of training a week, plus a gym workout and then 2 matches at the weekend. With his wrist he could so some lower body stuff but we mostly walked as much as we could as he couldn't run in case he fell. He's basically gone from walking to sprinting without much in between!