When "Mommy my stomach hurt!" requires medical attention

My Tummy Hurts…

One of the main reasons I am writing this is to potentially help save a childs life. Here is my story!

A few weeks ago my daughter complained of a stomach ache. Being the typical mom, I dismissed it as something she ate or needed to have a bowel movement. The next morning she said, “Mom my stomach still hurts.” I got her dressed, fed her crackers, and sent her off to school. Since I work at the school I told the teacher if her stomach continues to hurt allow her to put her head down and I would pick her up immediately following school. She rested all day in class completing some work but nothing major happened. I check with the teacher who stated she seemed fine by the end of the day. I checked with my daughter who stated she felt better, therefore I decided to stay at work and send her to extended care to play for a while.

About an hour after arriving home she stated her stomach pain had returned. At this point I am wondering if she is faking this whole stomache ache thing but then again after raising three other kids I have learned to never take the faking route because you never know. Based on this I called her doctor and explained the problem: stomach pain, vomiting the first day, no fever, no diarrhea, no appetite. The doctor felt it was maybe the flu coming on. I thought the flu..NOT! She is not coughing, snifling, soar throat, nothing. So I did what every typical mother does..I jumped on the internet and researched the flu. Well, there it was stomach pain..okay so I was wrong...hey, I am not a doctor. It wasn’t the first time and surely wont be the last.

The next morning my little sunshine felt better and off to school we went. But later that day she ate and vomited and also developed a soar throat so I decided to keep her home and keep an eye on her. She started to run a fever and get the sniffles so I figured okay the flu. I took her to the doctor and they gave her an antibiotic for her throat. I ran out to get all the typical cough medicine and fill her with fluids. By Monday she felt better and again we were off to another week at school. No stomach pain, no fever, nothing. GREAT!

The following week she developed a bizarre rash and again I took her to the doctor because I figured she has been sick for two weeks now and this is not normal. I have watched enough HOUSE to know this is not normal. The doctor told me this is just a rash and gave her a steroid and discontinued the antibiotic. A few days later she felt better.

The following week she began to complain of stomach pain again. I told her to rest and see if it goes away. She did but she would play with her siblings so again I dismissed the problem. In the middle of the night she came to get in the bed with us, which is not abnormal. The next morning she complained of her stomach hurting but this time she was rocking with the pain. I again reached for the internet to research stomach pain in children, I wrote down her bowel movements, and charted the past 2 ½ weeks. I went to the store to get something to help with her stomach ache. When I returned home she was in tears. I rushed to her side, trying to remain calm, to determine what is wrong. I took her temperature..low grade! I asked the typical questions: 1. Where does it hurt? 2. How bad is the pain? 3. Are you hungry? 4. Are you thirsty? 5. Can you get up? 6. Did you go potty since mommy left?

So, now I give her a pain killer and some plum juice to move the crowd inside. A few moments later she cries louder. I go back to her room and she is rocking even more this time holding her stomach. I stretch her legs out (pain) and lay my hand on her stomach. She tells me that doesn’t hurt. I press down and she cries louder. I tell the other children to get dressed because we are leaving. I call her pediatrician to let her know I am going to the emergency room. She concurs and off we go! I rush her in..at this point I will spare you of my emergency room nightmare. Lets just say after a 5 hour wait we finally get blood test and a CT scan.

Before we were back in the room good the doctor was in there giving us the bad news. Our daughter had to have surgery because she had appendicitis. Then another doctor enters the room and ask me to explain what happen. I tell him how the pain started weeks ago, and how I called the doctor, took her to the doctor twice, and how this morning she is crying in pain but now she feels better. HUH? She feels better…she is talking…laughing…and having a good time. She is her old self again so are you sure this is appendicitis. The head physician states and I quote, “This is not good.” Now I am scared..why? He tells us the pain leaving is the calm before the storm. How sometimes right before your appendix ruptures you don’t feel pain. How the pain with appendicitis comes and goes and she needs surgery immediately. WHAT!

Within a few minutes a surgeon enters the room and explains everything and how we got to this point. How fecal matter gets into your appendix and it gets all infected and yucky and requires removal. He explains why my five year old needs surgery within the next hour…they need to assemble a team and this will happen within 30 minutes to an hour. I am on the phone with all my prayer warriors asking them to get the lines of prayer open. My husband and I pray over our daughter and for the healing of her little body.

I will spare you the remaining details but want to tell every parent this:

1. Don’t ignore the stomach aches – touch their stomach. It is a myth that the pain is on the right side only. It appears in various places of the abdominal area and then may finally be in the appendix area (right side).
2. Don’t be a typical parent be paranoid when your child is sick. Now I am not implying that you run to the doctor if your child coughs but I am suggesting that you do your homework and listen to your child
3. Keep calling the doctor
4. Demand a CT scan for a reoccurring stomach ache
5. Get a good medical book – I have one and it helps
6. Ask your doctor for good medical websites for children where you can research ailments
7. If your child is in pain and you want them to be seen ASAP go by ambulance or you risk waiting for hours in an emergency room (ambulatory patients get precedence over walk-ins)
8. Research Appendicitis – it is nothing nice and can kill you if it ruptures. Studies show 1 in 15 people will have their appendix removed. A kindergartner in my area recently died because of a ruptured appendix (the toxins from the appendix and intestines spread quickly through her tiny little body).

My daughter is home now and healing – praise God. The surgeons stated her appendix was nasty and they are sure they just caught it before it ruptured. The surgeon stated she has a high pain tolerance because she should have been screaming in agony because it was really bad. I know God was watching over my daughter because this could have turned out much worse. I pray this help you.