8 year old pale/tired with odd bruising.

[MeinKraft]

I am out of my mind with worry about my 8 year old son. For a few months now he’s been a bit lethargic - first i chalked it up to end of of term fatigue. Then about 4 weeks ago he had about a week of constant sleeping, intense headaches and vomiting. The doctor said he had a virus.

Since then he’s still sluggish and he’s becoming very pale with dark rings under his eyes. He randomly vomited again the other day. He’s been getting bruises like this after scratching himself.

I took him to the doctor a fortnight ago who ordered bloods. The first appointment we could get was a few days ago. That was a fiasco but long story short the nurse couldn’t get his blood sample and they have put a referral in to the hospital for them to try and take them.

I am so stressed i feel like vomiting myself. I keep googling his symptoms and convincing myself he is seriously ill and no one is helping us. I don’t know when he will be seen at the hospital. He’s not ill enough for A&E - he’s still cheerful, eating ok, sleeping normally now just a bit lethargic and doesn’t want to go out and play and very pale and sickly looking.

I don’t really know why i’m posting. Maybe just for a bit of reassurance. I’m starting to have nightmares now that i’m going lose him. Maybe it’s me who should be visiting the GP as i’m losing the plot a bit!

That looks more like a pressure mark than a bruise. I think bruises associated with lymphoma etc (which I assume is what you are worried about) are much more purple. It could be post viral fatigue. Your anxiety does sound too much. I sympathise as I had this too. I took duloxetine for tests and it was a miracle worker. Switched the anxiety tap off for me.

How long til the hospital referral did they advise? You must be so so worried, is there anyway to get private bloods done in meantime just to hopefully reassure you or start piecing together the picture of his lethargy for now? There are mail order companies that will habe them done in a few days after posting and yes they won't diagnose properly but will show things like inflammation markers and blood count etc which can be a clue as to if there anything wrong.

This happened to my son, along with excessive drinking. It was type one diabetes, he was in dka and if i left it anylonger hed of died within a day or two.

When I had PND i used to have constant thoughts about my son falling out of the bedroom window when he was upstairs sleeping, I know my anxiety is returning because i’ve started checking and rechecking the windows upstairs again and in my nightmares he’s falling from a height. The mind is a strange thing. I do think there’s something underlying with him health wise, but I made a mistake by googling it. Thank you for your post, it’s calmed me down a bit.

I did consider this because I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with him. He hasn’t been drinking more and I dipped his urine this morning (i have tests in the house because i'm prone to UTIs) and there’s no glucose in his urine which is good, although i know that doesn’t rule diabetes out. I’m keeping a really close eye for signs of DKA x

They haven’t told me anything re waiting times or what to expect. I’m giving it until Tuesday and if I haven’t heard more i’m putting a letter in to the practice manager about the whole thing, it’s a long story and i won’t go into details but there have been multiple failures in trying to get him these blood tests, surely it should be a basic component of healthcare and easy to arrange but apparently not.

Just to balance out the more worrying possibilities, a friend's daughter had similar and at one point the doctors thought it might be leukemia. Turned out to be a dairy allergy! Exactly the same - very pale, fatigued, purple skin under her eyes.

You can get thumb-prick glucose blood tests OTC now if you want to try and rule that out.

I hope you get your blood test appointment very quickly.

I would just say if your son shows the more acute symptoms again (e.g. severe headache with vomiting /sleepy) then take him to A&E. When the doctors see him in that condition it will likely be a fast track to the tests he needs.

I needed to take my son to A&E twice (with pain) and then he was transferred to a ward, referred for tests and subsequently diagnosed with Crohn's.

Visiting the GP/paediatrician was getting me nowhere - it was all "come back for a review in 6 months" while my son wasted before my eyes - so not sorry for using A&E one bit. Bloody thankful in fact as he is now receiving treatment and doing great.

I hope your son's health improves quickly.

I am thinking he possibly has something along the lines of allergy/celiac/crohn’s. He has some problems with the enamel on his teeth, and he’s had an episode of pooing bloody mucus after a couple of days taking ibuprofen for a tooth infection. He also had several episodes of severe stomach pain for maybe a week or so, which the doctors put down to mesenteric adenitis but now I am starting to wonder. He doesnt have diarrhea often but some foods send does send him running to the toilet (mcdonald’s!)

When he was so ill before, he didn’t have a sore throat or ears or any respiratory symptoms. No one else in the house got ill, and he has a younger sibling. I’m not at all convinced that it was a virus. The doctor found a swollen lymph node in his neck which is why she came to that conclusion, it’s still swollen but the doctor didn’t seem too concerned when he saw him a couple of weeks ago. I will definitely take him to A&E if he gets sick again.

The blood test markers might show if something is amiss (I believe my son's was raised platelets). A test I didn't know about at the time but wish I had known is a Calprotectin stoole test.

My son's stoole was tested on a number of occasions for parasites/pathogens etc but the Calprotectin test is a separate test that wasn't done initially that shows inflammation in the bowel. The levels are raised for a number of situations including inflammatory bowel disease. This might not be the right time for this test but it is worth you knowing the test exists and asking your Dr if it might be a relevant test - especially if blood tests show something amiss that could be an inflammatory bowel disease.

Could easily be something benign like glandular fever (you don't have to be a teenager/adult to get symptoms after EBV infection). Lots of other viruses out there as well. I think, even though you may feel fobbed off, you need to mentally prepare yourself that you may not get an answer to what has caused this. GPs aren't necessarily begging dismissive when they say it's a virus, even though it often feels that way. Part of the problem is that by the time you have symptoms, the virus is already on its way out of the body thanks to the immune system and so difficult to test for.

The GP is actually testing for glandular fever! I’d be surprised since he didn’t have a sore throat when he was unwell but of course i would be over the moon if there turned out to be nothing seriously wrong, long term. I’m just bracing myself for the worst and hoping for the best at the minute!

How is your son feeling now? I came across this because my health anxiety has been going overtime - fixating on my son’s colouring.

The bruising cleared up so i think a PP was correct in that it wasn’t relevant. He has come round a bit, has started going outside to play again and is a slightly better colour (although still very pale.) However he’s also a few episodes of turning very white for a couple of hours and either vomiting or complaining of stomach pain. Repeat attempt at blood tests isn't until next week now but i will update when i get some results. I hope your child is ok. Being pale is one thing but coupled with other symptoms it’s worth getting checked out for everyone’s peace of mind.

Completely understand why you’re worried; health anxiety is awful!! I hope the next blood test is a bit easier for you both, and he starts to feel better soon.