Child with stomach pain, labs good

[CJMom]

My son has had sever stomach pain all week. He had his infusion this week and his labs all look good and no constipation or Diarrhea. Stomach pain is on left side, when he has pain it is always on left side, which makes sense when he has constipation.

The pain hurts worse when he sits up staight, he will often need to lie down and he will use hot water bottle which helps.

I mentioned it to his GI before infusion. Didn't have a reason why, compared it to a headache. Frustrating when the doctors can't help.

Any suggestions? He has a 504 plan and a wonderful tutor to help keep him up to date at school. He wants to be in school and is starting to get down about this pain.

 

[Eridon2002]

Sorry to hear about this. I know when I would get pain from my stricture (which is on my left side in the colon) lying down in the fetal position helped. If I stood up straight it would hurt the worst. When was his last colonoscopy?

 

[CJMom]

He was diagnosed almost 2 years ago with a colonoscopy and endoscopy. He also has a fistula. he is scheduled for a pelvic and small intestine MRI in two weeks.

 

[my little penguin]

Hopefully the imaging will give you answers
Things we do to help Ds stomach when it's acting up
Tens unit is helpful so he can move freely
Also heating pads

We did find last year and lots of imaging scopes that his crohns wasn't the issue behind his severe belly pain ( also doubled over many er visits and hospital stays later )
Ds was dx with Gastroparesis and found a few foods he used to tolerate well would cause instant doubled over belly pain ( chicken of all things as well as a few others)

Ds went formula only for a while which instantly helped his stomach pain ( didn't know about Gastroparesis yet . Then added one food at a time which is how we figured out what was causing most of his belly pain


Hope you get answers soon

 

[crohnsinct]

Stomach pain is the most common complaint in a doctors office. There are soooo many reasons for it. Of course as moms of IBD kiddo's our head goes immediately to IBD! Guilty as charged! Could be anything though. Virus, overlay of IBS, just plain stress, GP etc. I think the best we could do is help them with the pain and advocate should it continue.

Luckily, you have imaging coming up. That is great! The only other thing I might do is request a fecal calprotectin test as often blood markers are fine but the FC will reveal inflammation.

FWIW - my daughter also just had a week of stomach pain that I was sure was her IBD and then it mysteriously resolved.

Good Luck!

 

[CJMom]

I am guilty as charged once he has a stomach pain, I jump to it is the beginning of a flare. His stomach pain has improved and all ready to go back to school yesterday and now he has dizziness. We have taken him to ENT and neurologist and they found nothing. This happened before after being out sick with fistula issues and stomach as well. I am beginning to think he has some stress fear of returing to school after missing a week. He says he wants to go to school and i believe him as he has many friend and girlfriend.

Does anyone else have child who has dizzy spells and is it related to stress, even when they don't think they are stressed. I think it is the questions he worries about getting asked because he was out a week.

Any advice?

 

[my little penguin]

So I am the mean mom
Stomach pain always equals school
Tens units are attached and Ds is sent
He can lay down at the nurses office but does not get to stay home period
He rates the pain on a scale of 1 to 10
No facial expression on my part it's just a number
If it's a 10 then we head to the ER otherwise school
Dizziness could be not drinking enough fluids since he doesn't feel well
How much water does he drink a day ?
Ds is sent with a water bottle with marks in it so he knows how much to drink each hour
Not too much but not a ton either

Glad he is back at school
They have to learn to deal with this disease through adulthood and work which means coping at school even when they feel bad

We also having heating pads at the nurses office at school to use

 

[Maya142]

My daughter also usually went to school even though she was in pain. Sometimes she'd go to the nurse (we also left heating pads at the nurse) and sometimes the nurse would call, saying she needed to go home, but for the most part, she found that school was a good distraction.

Unless she had very severe pain, she did not stay home.

She also did love school and HATED missing, and doing the make-up work so that helped.

Have you considered seeing a psychologist to help deal with stress? My kiddo was VERY against seeing one, but luckily her GI insisted and so M had to go. It took her a while to get used to it, but now she actually asks to see her psychologist. It has been a huge help and she has learned ways to cope with her illnesses.

I agree, the dizziness could be stress or it could be just not drinking/eating enough. My daughter also carried a water bottle to school and took it with her everywhere - it was the only way she'd drink enough water.

Thermacare wraps are like heating pads that can be worn. You can use the wrap for lower back pain, backwards, so the hot part is on the stomach. He can wear them under his clothes and no one has to know! That has helped my daughter with belly pain.

 

[CJMom]

Sorry I should add more, stomach pain alone I agree he goes to school, as hard as it is we try to prepare him for life. It was stomach pain and some D with horrible sick smell. He typically doesnt get D with Crohns. A few of his friends where also out last week with stomach bug with throwing up, he did not have that however.

I have read about TEN, did you get that as a script from Dr or buy on your own? Heating pad and/or water bottle is good idea to have at school nurses office. thank you for suggestion.

 

[my little penguin]

Originally had a script from pain management from a second opinion place
But once that died after years of use
Just bought a new one
InTENSity 12
No script but with a script insurance should cover it

 

[Maya142]

We got ours through our pain management doctor and insurance covered it. They also send us supplies every month (new battery, electrodes) which is nice.