Spent three hours in A&E today for a three min consultation.

[longwaytogo]

DD has been complaining of pain in her thumb for months. Been to GP ages and ages ago said it was muscular and gave her nurofen. On Fri she got hit with rounders bat and hasn't stopped complaining, so this am decided to take her as I feel like a bad mother as she always seems to be complaining about something or other. We waited for ages 3 hours actually to be told she could touch her thumb and little finger together so it wasn't broken and no xray would be required. Told us to go back to gp and get a rheumatology referal.

I'm really worried about her she is always complaining of either a sore throat, knee pain or the pain in her thumb. She says no one ever believes her.

When we go out as we did yesterday afternoon to a bbq she was fine till we got out of the car and then she spent the whole time sat looking miserable and holding her hand. Someone said she strikes me as a young woman who has to grow into herself. How on earth do I help her to do this, she has always lacked in self confidence and I don't want her to grow up being insecure.

Sorry for the waffle she is 14 next month btw

erm, if she's been complaining for months, then A+E really isn't the right place for her, unless the rounders incident made a BIG difference to the symptoms

A+E on a Sunday afternoon is always busy- three hours for something that isn't life threatening isn't too bad really- we waited two hours on a Monday evening when dd had a broken foot (and that was with my member-of-staff queue jumping skills!)

erm i know A&E isnt the place for prob that been going on for months but fri did make big difference, and I know it not life threatening and tbh it was more about making her feel like i'm listening to her.

Think the thread more about concerns over her rather than the three hour wait so probably titled wrong but just so fed up of there always being something wrong with her.

i would take her to gp and get it checked out.she wouldn't be making the same thing up for this long.if it's her joints there could be a problem that needs sorting.

I have no idea how to deal with a 14 year old always having something wrong with them. I know with younger children its easy to distract them. If she keeps on about her finger hurting, get the Dr to refer her so tests can be carried out.

At the barbeque, did she get attention off anyone for having a bad hand?

no she didn't get attention for it the people we were with know what she like and don't pander to her.

Definitely get her checked out at GP. Have to say, my friends with older children say that teenagers can be very self-centred and dramatic about minor things and have no awareness of the anxiety they put their parents through! Hope things get better for you.

Maybe she didn't want to go to the barbeque and she thought you would take her home again if she was hurt?(But that didn't work and she couldn't back out of her plan)
I'd still take her back to the drs and get a referal, you never know, there could be a reason for it hurting.

Thing is she did want to go to bbq all her mates were there - teenagers i just don't get it

it could be that her thumb really hurts! she could have some kind of arthritic condition.i don't understand why you seem so keen to attribute it to her being difficult?

A 'texting' thumb, perhaps?

definately not a texting thumb she lost her phone months ago. I don't think she is being difficult its just that she always has something wrong with her and seems so miserable. I have tried to ask her if anything worrying her but she says no. It has been a difficult year as a family and I just worry she hasn't quite got it all worked out yet and am concerned and don't know how to help her. Anyway going to gp this am

I would give her the benefit of the doubt,I was always ill as a teenager weird aches and pains and a lot of sore throats.I don't want to frighten you just to warn you that if it is rheumatic as mine was it can have serious consequences if not treated.Get the doctor to run some standard blood tests just to check.

Please continue to take this seriously- I had a post viral inflammatory problem that left me quite debilitated for a while as it affected my feet and my hands.Also ended up on anti-inflammatories for about 2 years. Go back to your GP and don't leave until you are promised a referral to a rheumatologist. Has she been tested for glandular fever?

Sorry- should have said between the ages of 16-18 and it really dented my confidence because for ages no-one would take me seriously.

GP said he would write again to the consultant she has already been referred to about her knees and put her thumb on as well. This morning on the phone he said he would take some bloods then decided not to as her joints "look" normal. Told her to percivere and just continue taking the nurofen. Going to ring school and see what they can do in terms of computer etc as she is really finding writing difficult.

Longwaytogo, if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with her knees? Is it related to her thumb problems?

At this age I was always getting aches and pains, mostly in my hips and jaw but also other places.

I lived with my gran at the time and she just said Poof - growing pains. She was right aobut most of it, the pains did eventually go away although they hurt like hell at the time I have since found out that growing pains do exist and are caused by the rate of chage the body oges through - usually they are periodic matching growth spurts etc.

Sadly she was wrong about jaw and hips - these were serious problems (still ongoing) which could have been much helped by being caught earlier. It is always worth being sure IMO.

longwaytogo I'm puzzled as to why he wouldn't take bloods. I was refered to be tested for rheumatoid arthritis at about this age, because I had problems in my ankles (turned out to be something else that cleared up eventually) and all my joints appeared perfectly natural. Far better the minimal distress of some blood tests than delaying treatment for a potentially serious condition. I would go back and insist on the blood tests. And also give your dd lots and lots of uninvasive, undemanding, quiet mummy-time.

She has had pain in her knees for the last 18 months or so and they just say its a condition typical to teenage girls and it does eventually clear up. As for the blood test he said he would leave it up to the consultant if he wanted to do them.

as for lots of mummy time thats really hard, her sister is just over a year younger than her and is always around. Then there's the other two rascals who are in bed early but then she's disappeared and you can never get a conversation out of her.

Anyone any ideas of how to spend time with her? She doesn't like shopping.

just wondering whether to go buy her some cod liver oil tablets and see if that makes a difference.

My sister was always complaining about pains and illnesses as she entered her teens.
I can remember mum rushing her ti a and e more than once.

Last year she admitted to mum that it had all been attention seeking, not in a negative way, but simply because in her mind, this was th eway to do it. She was never really starved of attention either, it's just the way she felt.

Perhaps you could ask her what she'd like to do, just you and her if that's feasible.

I would insist on blood tests not all auto immune conditions affecting the joints etc make them look different.The bones can look normal and still ache