Hi Heart, please send me your PayPal/Venmo link.

I am so sorry for your daughter, and for you as well! I will also be sending her healing thoughts. Anecdotal story coming up, feel free to skip! Reading through this thread jogged a memory from when a cousin of mine was a young teen. She was suffering similarly from constant abdominal pain. They finally admitted her to a respected children's hospital for a week, tested for everything they knew to test for, which of course came back fully negative. Her parents brought her home when the docs recommended a psych consult for psychosomatic pain, since it must all be imaginary and in her head. They tried some diet changes, and helped her develop other coping strategies, and it did help but it never fully went away. Years later, her first child was born with cystic fibrosis. There were no known cases on either side of the parents families, so this came as something of a shock to them. During one of babies first checkups, the CF specialist asked both parents if they had ever had certain symptoms growing up, and severe abdominal pain was one of them. Recent research has shown that CF carriers are not as asymptomatic as they once thought (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191017135743.htm) He was certain that her stomach issues growing up were related to that, which is why the more traditional tests came back within normal range. Vindication for her years after the fact that it wasn't in her head after all, at least. If you don't get the answers you are expecting from the GI, I would push to find a doctor who will think outside the box a little. The stomach pain might be the result, not the cause, if you know what I mean? Again, best wishes for you both.

Could this long time lurker also have an invite? My children are 18 and 16, and I would love to commiserate with all of you. Parenting older children/young adults has given me more anxiety and sleepless nights than my toddlers did! It has been quite an unexpected turn that I don't see discussed very often. Thank you for starting this!

I haven't read them in years, but I remember a very sweet and wholesome vibe about the Betsy-Tacy books, by Maud Hart Lovelace. They begin at about age 5 and go through to at least late teens, if I recall. They reminded me a lot of the LH and Anne books, set in a slightly different era in Minnesota.

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