in

England

Need advice- appendix?

My three year old daughter was sent home today from nursery after complaining of tummy pain, not eating any of her lunch (they even offered her pudding and she didn’t want it which is very out of character) and basically passing out on one of her key workers until they called me to come collect.

When we got home she was holding her tummy and yelling for a while, about an hour in to being at home she ran to the potty saying she needed a ‘poo’ and she stayed there for a good 2-3 hours. She didn’t poop (did wee) and every time we tried to get her to stand up, she doubled over in pain, screamed and sat back on the potty. When we did finally get her to get up and walk a little bit, she was doubled over crying in pain. I took her temp every half hour and it was between 36-37.

This happened once before, last week, she woke up in the night screaming that her tummy hurt and stayed sat on the potty for hours. The next day she pood twice and her poo was soft so there is NO way it could have been constipation (what i first assumed).

I called 111 hoping to get some sort of advice as this was not like her at all, they ran through their questions and basically told us to call our gp as they couldn’t help.

Appendicitis runs in my partners family, both his grandmother and sister have had to have theirs removed. Showed NONE of the typical signs apart from tummy pain (not even a temp). So of course we were getting rather concerned. My SIL was fobbed off multiple times until they eventually scanned her and found her appendix hiding in a pocket ready to burst.

So we called gp, managed to get my daughter checked over. GP wasn’t convinced it was to do with appendix but after explaining family history she called paediatrics and they agreed they should see my daughter.

Went to the hospital where they took my daughters obs. Daughter was walking around slightly but very slow and holding the front of her belly the entire time. She later knocked out and slept on me. She had many nurses/ doctors come in to check obs and poke around her tummy, one of the docs was convinced it was her appendix because of her reaction when pressing in that area, they arranged to do urine sample and bloods. Got my daughter numbing cream for her hands and applied that and we waited.

Another doc then came in, felt my daughters stomach and decided it was probably a UTI and they’ll test her urine and not do bloods. So managed to get my daughter to wee, they tested and it came back negative for a UTI.

The doc then explained that she believed all of this was down to some viral infection and basically sent us home. We have a call back for the ward if my daughter gets worse or issues persist but I’m a little dumbfounded that all of what my daughter could be experiencing is down to a viral infection?!

I am not convinced that they have done a thorough investigation. Feeling my daughter’s tummy, one doctor convinced it’s her appendix saying that is the issue while the other saying it isn’t. My daughter had perked up after she woke and she did eat something while we waited for her to have a wee, but it seemed no different to when she was sat on the potty and she would be fine one minute and then screaming in pain the next minute. Felt like we couldn’t argue and sent on our merry way.

We’re keeping a very close eye on DD tonight, she was exhausted when we got home and luckily passed out and has been asleep since with occasional wake ups, we’re going to see what she is like tomorrow, however, the doc was like ‘see how she goes’ when i asked if i should call tomorrow if she is still having the same issues. I feel like my daughter has been completely fobbed off, it was heartbreaking seeing her in so much pain and never ever have i or anyone I know had a ‘viral infection’ that has you doubled over screaming?! I feel like bloods should have been taken or a scan done to completely rule it out, especially when this isn’t the first time it has happened and family history shows it does not show up as ‘typical’ symptoms.