Back to the Doctor

Well after a wonderful week with Grandma J, Aunt Kristy, Uncle Brad and Sarah they are all off one their way back to their homes. We had a wonderful week full of many fun events which as I think I have said before included feeding the chickens, breakfast at Elmers, Saturday Market, a Max ride, Snow Tubing on the Mt., as well as Chuck E Cheese. :) The adults are all tired and need a vacation now! We had pictures taken last night at Yuen Lui's with the family and just of the kids, etc... It was really nice and I think we will have some nice picts.

Jenny got Guitar Hero with two guitars from Brad, Kristy and Jared for her birthday. She was excited and so were her brothers. :) Another fun Wii game.

All weekend Jenny has continued to feel bad--so much so that she really was not able to enjoy most of the things that we did--and that she would normally enjoy. She seems lethargic, low energy and overall feels bad with the main complaint still being "I don't feel good. My tummy hurts." This is really becoming difficult for all of us that are around her to stomach ourselves. She is a happy, fun and well adjusted little girl and her behavior right now is anything but normal.

Thus far we have had test for food allergies, taken her off of dairy for a month, started her on asthma medication, tried Previcid for Acid Reflux (3 weeks--no change), tested for Celiac Disease, tested for ulcers, Chron's Disease, IBS, and a few other things I am sure. Paul and I have ruled out psychosocial concerns in our minds--and really in the mind of our GP as well. We have been to see and Endocrionlogist, a Pedicatric GI, an Allergist, and also 2 Pediatricians. The GI said that he believed that she was having "Functional Abdominal Pains"--maybe better known as growing pains. He stated that they were fairly common and that they were caused by pain nerve endings being stimulated and sending pain signals to the brain. If you Google "Functional Abdominal Pain" you get quite a bit--it is a common diagnosis. Dr. Marshall (GI) feels like since Jenny's symptoms have not changed and have not gotten any worse or progressed that there is little need to be alarmed. He stated that we needed to ride it out and told her that as well, in a nice way.

That is an easy thing to say a hard thing to live out. My daughter is not in an okay state. She is miserable I would say 75% or more of the time. She wakes up in the night crying and her moaning at night often wakes me up. She is eating very little, yet seems to still be slowly gaining weight. Loud noise bothers her, which seems to go along with just not feeling well.

So today I went back to see my pediatrician. I told him that I was not content at this point to sit and wait for months or years (as some kids have this pain for years) for this to go away. I told him I wanted to keep searching and ruling out everything that we could. Today they took more blood, (poor Jenny--she looked up at him with big tears today and said "I just want to feel better, it is not fair"--he replied, "no it isn't Jenny I am sorry"). They did a mono test (negative) they will be testing for thyroid imbalance, as well as a general overall screening. If everything comes back normal there the next step will be a CAT scan next week, just to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. I don't know what will come after all of that. I guess more waiting. I don't know how to proceed. I feel trapped. I want to push her on to live normal life, but how can you keep pushing a child that truly feels horrible. I deal with this so much with Brendan already and I have to say (you can ask me friends) I am not very good at pushing my kids on through pain. My grandma says "tell her all little girls have stomach pain, and just to ignore it and go on". Not so easy for me or her. "Everyone has it" doesn't make it stop hurting. :(

Sorry I am having a hard day with this one. I just want my kids to be okay. I don't want them to ever feel bad--I guess that is what all momma's want huh?

Thanks for listening. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day :)