We started down the specialist path for my DD this week

She's been complaining about belly aches for years, and we've been dealing with it only as far as it intrudes on her daily life, like preventing her from going to soccer or school.  She's almost 11 and I wanted to delay as long as possible so she wouldn't have to go through the incredibly invasive diagnostics we're all too familiar with.

Her issues were pretty well controlled with a PPI and avoiding lactose.  But last weekend she had two bloody stools (not too much, but enough to notice) and started feeling pretty awful.  This week she's only managed to be at school for 2 days and hasn't eaten much or taken significant fluids.  We brought her to her ped on Monday for the needed referral to the local GI clinic.  But on Thursday, having heard nothing from either office about our referral, and seeing her pale face refusing to go to school, I took her to the ER.  sigh.  They were of no help (except getting us a prescription for zofran) - I was hoping to force the system and get her a GI consult that way, but no luck.

Then I spent the afternoon on the phone and finally got an appointment for Monday.  whew.

Meanwhile she still feels miserable.  She's taking prilosec, and took her 2nd dose of zofran this morning.  After my 10 years of Crohn's and 11 years of parenting I still feel clueless on how to get her to eat or drink.  She isn't vomiting and she doesn't have diarrhea - just malaise and misery.  I suppose I can offer her jello; she's refused chicken broth, yogurt, water....ugh.

I'd love to hear about what diagnostic practice is for children - if she has to get scoped next week, do they do the prep as an inpatient, or are we going to be sitting up with her all night trying to get her to drink the nasty stuff and pound water?

Yes, big betty, we are dealing with Texas Children's Hospital. Our regular ped is associated with that hospital and the TCH GI Clinic is where we'll be going on Monday. It is just hard to get an appointment there.

I remember when I first got sick I had to wait a few weeks for a GI appt. It seemed ridiculous to me that I could feel like total cr*p and no one was especially excited about it, at least not enough to squeeze me in quickly. Same with my daughter. When I brought her to the ER it was the same thing - the first two screeners in their triage process really made me mad by insinuating that she was complaining in order to get out of school. It wasn't until the fourth medical professional came into our room that we got a serious discussion of what was going on.

When I got on the phone yesterday afternoon I made sure to say to everyone that my daughter is not eating or drinking. That got her an appt for Monday. Four days from now. ugh.

Do they not give pain meds to kids at least to give them a break from the pain? At least when I go to the ER, even if they don't find anything, they give me pain meds so I'm relieved of the pain for a while.

(((((hugs))))) to your daughter, kazben. I hope you make it through the weekend and get some answers and get her to feeling better soon.

Mijer's mom, thanks for the feedback about the prep. My daughter has always been very sensitive to taste and smell, so refuses most medicine (including tylenol for pain, and now the zofran, too). I know that getting her to drink that nasty prep is going to be awful.

No one has offered her any pain meds. My own CD does not involve much pain, and it's hard for me to understand what exactly her complaint is. But she's clearly miserable. My DH just got back with her - she left her friend's birthday party early because she was feeling so bad. Only two days until we get to the doctor, but no telling how much longer after that until we have a treatment plan. I'm kind of hoping they'll just put her on pred for a couple of weeks to address this flare, but I know they're going to want an actual diagnosis and not rely just on mom's intuition.

K.