I miss watching my kids do their activities..swim team, karate, horseback riding. I miss chatting with other parents. I miss ice skating weekly with my daughter. I hate the feeling that everything is contaminated, like groceries and mail and packages. I miss normalcy. It is nice to have a reprieve from feeling like there is never enough time and everything is rushed, but the circumstances aren't allowing me to enjoy it that much. My brother is a doctor down in New Orleans too so I have an underlying worry about him.

That sounds tough! I hope you are able to find some support as you adjust to fostering. Best of luck!

Pen, I stayed home from the trip.

Thanks for checking in! This whole thing has been frustrating. She has an appointment with a GI specialist, but not until September 18. This has been going on for 3.5 weeks now, and now we are looking at another month until she is seen. I have called other specialists, but they require a physician's referral even though my insurance doesn't. I just called the pediatrician's office yesterday to ask if there really isn't something else they can do in the meantime, and the only thing they offered was to take another x-ray to see if she's still constipated. As for her symptoms, drinking water is much, much better now. She still can't lie down without feeling very sick. In addition, she now has stomach aches that comes and go all day. Each one lasts for up to 2 hours and they vary in severity.

Wow, this is beautiful! I think I might have to try this.

Thanks!

At my husband's insistence, the pediatrician's office is giving us a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist, just as you suggested. If they don't get back to me in the next day or so I am just going to call myself as we don't actually need a referral. Thanks for your advice!

Thank you for the suggestions! I was talking with her again last night about the possibility of stress contributing to her symptoms. I have some Calm powder, and I will start to give her some in the evenings again. Great idea. I also would think that we should complete the course of antibiotics, but the doctor said to stop immediately, and that it wasn't doing her any favors for her stomach. She has not been to a gastro doctor. I am hoping we'll get a referral if her symptoms don't improve! I don't know if she's experiencing spasms or not. She says there is a sharp pain and an "overfull" feeling when she drinks, but lately it's been less pain and more the discomfort. I agree that I want the other symptoms looked into also! We are trying ex lax right now to see if she can get some relief. I think at this point she is getting enough fluids. She is back to urinating several times a day. And yes, we are on Day 13, heading into another weekend 😞 She is eating fairly normally, but drinking less than normal.

I just wanted to give an update to say that my daughter had an abdominal x-ray that showed constipation. They said to give her 5 capfuls (!) of Miralax to do a clean-out. The problem is, she could not choke down the mixture because of her symptom of pain when drinking fluids. Someone asked if it was just water, and it is not. Everything she drinks is bothering her. My husband called the nurse line this morning and told them what was going on, and they said to try half a square of ex lax, which I just gave her. The thing is, she says she is not constipated at all! She says she has been having a normal bm every day, without struggle. I truly appreciate everyone's thoughts, and I'm sorry I have been distracted and haven't replied before now. This is day 12 of ongoing symptoms, and now we're heading into another weekend with no relief. I have had discussions with her about stress, and she did report feeling stressed out the night that this first happened but not sure that would last this long, and only in certain positions? I'm still holding the idea of it being a UTI in the back of my head. Spryte, thank you for the name of that radiology site.

It boggles my mind too! No imaging has been done at all. I was so frustrated by her putting me off until Monday, because each day feels like forever when she's suffering. Also, 8 days is too long for these symptoms to be going on without being looked into further. Th doctor was going with the idea that she doesn't really have a UTI, and that the staph was from her skin. I will be pushing for more thorough investigation. I can't believe your daughter suffered for so long! Thank you so much for your insights.

Thank you for this. I will ask the doctor about this.

My husband works from home and would care for her and take her to any appointments.

I would love an outside perspective. Last Saturday a week ago), I went for a hike with the kids. My daughter was great, full of energy. That evening I read her a chapter from a book. Said goodnight, then at 10 pm she sent me a text from her room that she's feeling shaky. I assumed her muscles were tired from the hike, gave her water, went back to my room. I checked on her about 15 minutes later and she was shaking and said her stomach was hurting. I got her to the bathroom and sat her on a stool, and her legs were shaking so hard she couldn't keep them still. After a few minutes, my husband came up to help. We took her temperature and it was normal. Because she couldn't stop shaking, we called the after hours nurse, who said to take her to the ER. In the ER, they took a urine and blood. We were there all night. My daughter said her stomach hurt whenever she took a sip of water. When she tried to lie down, the shaking got worse and her stomach hurt and she felt sick. The shaking got better throughout the night. At 5am, the doctor said her blood looked great but she had a UTI and prescribed her antibiotics. The next day, she was able to doze while sitting upright but was unable to sleep in a reclining position because of the discomfort. We started antibiotics and cranberry juice. The symptoms did not improve over the next couple of days. I called the nurse who said that the urine culture tested positive to staph and to continue antibiotics. On Wednesday, she was not better and I brought her to the doctor. At this point, my husband and I were worried about dehydration because her fluid intake/output was so low.The doctor said the current urine sample looked good but that since her symptoms didn't fit the story of a UTI, we were going to stop antibiotics and try Pepcid and Tums. She said to call back Friday. My daughter is chipper and has energy but is still experiencing upper abdominal pain when drinking and lying down a week later. When I called the office yesterday, they said to call back Monday. I am scheduled to drive with my boys and sister down to North Carolina from Maine next Wednesday, but don't want to leave my daughter without knowing what's wrong. It seems to be a mystery what could have caused this to come on so suddenly and not go away. And I don't know what to do about my trip! What do you think?

Same exact thing here! One day.... @soror, congratulations! Are you certified to teach all levels or do they still just give a couple of levels to start with? I'm so happy for you!!

Good luck @soror! I did not enjoy the Mock class at all. It's a lot of work, but now it's behind you!