My 13 year old son keeps having recurring abdominal pain. It started in March when he woke up complaining of severe abdominal pain. I took him to the ER where he had a CT scan, blood work and was given morphine. The CT scan showed nothing and the blood work came back normal. They ruled out appendicitis at the time. He was prescribed an antibiotic and pain medication and the ER doctor diagnosed it as Mesenteric Adenitis which is swollen lypmph nodes in the groin and abdomen area and said that it was viral and it would go away on it's own. He was fine for a few months then again in May it happened again and I took him back to the ER. This time they did not want to do a CT scan because of the amount of radiation but did do bloodwork again to rule out appendicitis. Apparently there is a blood test that can tell if someone is having appendicitis or not. Again, the blood work showed nothing. Fast forward to September and it is happening again. Last week he was out of school for two days and I took him to the pediatrician who basically told me nothing and told me to take him to a GI doctor (we have an appointment next week). The pains went away for a few days and now today it is back again and he is home from school. It is starting to happen more frequently now and I am worried. Has anyone else experienced this with their child? If so what was the diagnosis/treatment? Thank you.
What about gallbladder, have you noticed it after greasy foods? My step son had his gallbladder removed around that age. They couldn't find anything really wrong but he was having sharp pains. His doctor removed his gallbladder and he hasn't had them pains since then.
Hope he feels better soon!
Crohn's was my first thought, but that could be because I was his age when mine showed up. Any other symptoms .... Diarrhea, weight loss, etc? Be sure to make a complete list of all his symptoms since March so you can discuss up them with GI. Be prepared ... They may want to do a series of rather unpleasant tests to rule some things out. Your son will not like them (neither did I) and you may want to protest (my parents did), but they are necessary to determine the diagnosis. Good luck and I hope the doctor gets to the bottom of his pain quickly.
My daughter has experienced very similar things.
The most vital thing you can do right now is to start a food journal. I suggest getting a simple notebook or legal pad, and use one page for each day.
Write down the date, and then write down any foods or drinks your son consumes. Be specific. (I know, I've written this advice before, but it's important). Do not write: lunch. Write: 1 red apple, 1 sandwich made from two slices of white bread and two slices of deli ham and 1 slice of American cheese. 1 diet Coke. Or whatever lunch was. Don't write: supper. Write: Spaghetti with Prego mushroom sauce and Kraft parmesan cheese, or spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce made with fresh tomatoes and onions and garlic, and two slices of Pepperidge Farm garlic toast.
Note all the little things, like gum, or a candy bar. And get him involved. If he grabs a banana or a drink of juice, have the notebook open in a convenient place and teach him to write it down.
Do the same for snacks, breakfasts, suppers, etc. Keep the list in some kind or order, like starting at the top for breakfast, and going down the page as the day progresses.
Then, when he feels pain, put some kind of mark on the page. Like a red X. Mark the X next to the time of day when he felt the pain.
You may see something pop out at you. The marks may coincide with a particular food or food group.
And, does he eat anything that is sugar-free, "diet", artificially sweetened? Anything containing xylitol, mannitol, sorbitol, erythritol?
This journal thing is especially important to start NOW since you have a GI appointment next week.
My daughter turned out to be extremely intolerant to certain fruits, and she's severely allergic to quinoa (I know, right? Who's allergic to that? She is.) We read labels like crazy and avoid those fruits strictly. No sugar free stuff EVER, and no processed foods.
I hope you can figure out what's bothering your son soon. It's frustrating, I know.
A previous coworker had this issue with her son. He was 9 or so, I think. She kept a food journal per the specialists order. I think it turned out to be celiac disease. Totally changed the way the family ate.
Abdominal migraines??
Why wasn't he referred to a GI MD the first go around?
Well, he is now....make sure you provide a complete history when you go to that appointment.
It's true that enlarged abdominal lymph nodes can cause severe pain. So a virus could account for the first bout. And it's a common problem that kids who typically get headaches / stomach aches, those symptoms skyrocket in September returning to school and new routines.
So it's easy to explain away 2 of the 3 bouts...but this needs to be thoroughly investigated now to rule out auto immune problems, like Chrohn's disease.
Is there a lot of stress in your son's life?
My first guess is celiac disease. Have you tested for that?
My daughter experienced something similar last year. We had her to the ER 3 times in a week and a half. 3 weeks later we took her to a GI doctor. He looked at her X-ray and said he believed the problem was constipation. He could see a lot of stool high up in her colon although the whole time she was going to the bathroom. She had to do fleet enemas as well as start taking mirolax.
Her case I believe was a little confusing however because some of her blood work was a little off. Her pediatrician thinks it was a coincident and that my daughter also happen to have a stomach virus in the beginning of the her bout of constipation.
I hope you figure it out soon.
I'm sorry that I don't have any answers, all I can say is keep pushing for specialists until you have a real diagnosis.
At that age, a female friend of mine complained of severe abdominal pain. Her mom took her to a few doctors who didn't find anything and the last one even said she was making it up to get out of school! Finally, someone did a the appropriate scan and found out she had ovarian cysts, which are notoriously painful. Obviously this is not your son's problem. But my point is don't let doctors convince you to stop looking for an answer! I wouldn't bother with the ER much - they are good at diagnosing trauma, but not something like this. You need the GI specialist and if he can't figure it out, look for another GI person to get a second opinion.
My daughter had abdominal pains and nausea for months. we kept a food journal but there was no correlation. After some time everything caused nausea and pain. Her pediatrician prescribed antacid meds which did nothing. GI ruled out Crohns and lactose intolerance. Then with scan found her colon was completely clogged (compacted) with stool. She gave instructions for a complete 2 day clean-out (laxatives, etc similar to what you do for a colonoscopy) and then put her on diminishing doses of Miralax. The main cause for this kind of compaction is slight dehydration over long periods of time. My daughter still has trouble drinking enough liquids since she rarely feels thirsty.
Is the pain lower, belly button or above belly button? My son had this last year and we went to the ER several times, except his led to some severe acid reflux and was treated for GERD. And tested him for celiacs and lactose intolerance. He Kept having pain by the belly button and stuff in his throat so we took him to a gastroenterologist and they did an endoscopy and said that there was some irritation in the lining but said it looked like it was mostly healed. Is he complaining of feeling stuff come up his throat at all?
