Lingering Illness in Our Ten Year Old
Our ten year old has been under the weather for about a month now. He’s had symptoms including a sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, malaise, joint and muscle pain, and diarrhea. The most prevalent complaint is nausea. In fact, nausea has been the one consistent symptom throughout the whole ordeal.
I’ve made it clear to our General Practitioner and G.I. specialist that he has no motivation to remain sick (he loves school, sports, his teacher, and his friends) and is not a complainer unless he feels really bad. We’ve been able to rule out several maladies, including strep throat, mono, lyme disease, West Nile, various inflammatory diseases, low iron, Giardia, and other intestinal parasites. We’re currently waiting on test results for H. pylori and Celiac Disease.
While he’s missed a few days of school here and there, he’s returned to school on doctor’s orders as a way to distract him from the nausea. Her concern is that he’s fallen into a medical and behavioral pattern where he feels nauseated, stays home and dwells on it, and perpetuates the problem. Don’t get me wrong! She doesn’t think that he’s faking, but she wants him to get back to his usual routine as soon as possible. I tend to agree with her.
Together with the G.I. specialist we’re hoping to eliminate his nausea altogether. I’ll write more about the other two test results as soon as I hear.
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I am very interested to hear news — my 12yo son has been suffering similar nausea/”spitting up” for about a month. He was diagnosed with strep throat at the beginning of it all, but the nausea has persisted, off and on. I’ll follow your research & progress on Feedburner, let you know if we come up with anything–
Comment by Sherri Caldwell - The Rebel Housewife — Nov 10th 2007 @ 1:35 amLate-night internet research: I keep coming up with GERD, or acid reflux, which sounds spot-on in our case. Good info on WebMD and KidsHealth.org, which is a new site for me: http://kidshealth.org/teen/dis...../gerd.html. Hope it helps, at least as far as general info to consider/ask doctor about.
Comment by Sherri Caldwell - The Rebel Housewife — Nov 10th 2007 @ 1:54 amhow are his sinuses doing? does he have allergies that set off a constant nasal drip or drainage?
i ask as my son’s allergies set off both and all that mucous hitting his stomach makes him nauseated. especially early in the morning before breakfast.
hope your little guy gets to feeling better soon.
Comment by AMMBD — Nov 10th 2007 @ 3:53 pmI too would check for GERD! OR SLEEP APNEA!!!
Comment by NCN — Nov 11th 2007 @ 10:18 pmSeriously, before I got diagnosed, I had trouble sleeping, coughing, sore throat, weekness, etc…. month after month after month..
Visit a sleep specialist, etc…
NCN
I’ve been reading your blog and enjoying the stories about your boys for a long time now. I am sorry to hear your som is not feeling well. I sure hope that you figure out the solution soon. I only have half as many boys as you have, and I know how difficult it is to see your child sick. Best wishes!
Comment by Tamara — Nov 13th 2007 @ 11:56 pm