Severe Abdominal Pain

[Refpoman]

My son who is twelve years old has been having severe abdominal pain now for almost 3 months.  It has been hurting him so much that he has had to miss a tremendous amount of school as well.  It started with Bronchitis...which developed into borderline Pneumonia.  He then was given a series of 3 antibiotics...I remember Biaxin being the last of the three.  He then started developing this pain in his right upper abdomen that started to bother him quite a bit.  They did a variety of x-rays, bloodwork, which all came back negative.  They thought it might be his appendix....so they did a CT Scan w/contrast...more bloodwork....still coming back all negative.  ER Doctor thought it might be C-Diff and put him on Flagyl.  That didn't help his pain at all...did stool sample for C-Diff which came back negative.  All this time, he was always running a low grade fever....but nothing ever showed up abnormal with blood results.  The Doctor then tried Probiotics....then Prevacid....Bentyl....and still nothing helped his pain.  We waited for what seemed like forever for my son to see a Gastro specialist from Children's Mercy Hospital, which suggested that we get him scoped....so we did last week.  Doctor reported after doing an EGD/Colonoscopy that everything look pretty good....maybe some mild irritation to his duodenum...but nothing severe enough to make him hurt this bad.  They tested the biopsies...and nothing came back abnormal....no intestinal parasites...nothing!  At this point, the Doctors say that it could be all stemming from possible stress related symptoms.  I'm at a loss as of right now....I'm just trying to find something that will make my son feel better and get him back in school.  Does anybody have any ideas on what other possible tests might be done to help diagnose this problem?  Would an MRI of his abdominal area help us find anything out?  He's been just miserable lately....limping on his right leg....loss of appetite...depressed....wants to get back in school, but he's still having abdominal pains/cramps/spasms that aren't allowing him to do so.  Doctors have him on hycosamine right now for muscle spasms...but it's not doing much to help.  They might want to put him in Children's Mercy Hospital for a few days to continue to try and diagnose his abdominal pains.  Can anyone give me some ideas of what might be going on or what further to do.....I would sure appreciate greatly!!

[Refpoman]

Thanks for writing me blondebabe!  I really appreciate it.  After reading your reply, I totally forgot that I didn't mention that he did have an ultrasound and a hida scan of his galbladder!  And guess what.....it all came back frickin' NORMAL!!  
I just got done meeting with his PCP about the next step, and it looks like were going to get an MRI done on his abdomen area, along with additional bloodwork.  Hopefully, the MRI will tell us something that might be directly related to his ongoing pain.     If everything comes back negative....then were planning on getting him in a Children's Mercy Hospital.  I'll let everyone know what we find out.  By the way...the car ride home was from the Doctor was brutal....it was only a 10 mile drive...but with the bumps driving my son insane....it felt like 30 miles!!   Man I'll be glad when we know what's going on!!

[blondebabe]

hey i have been in and out of the hospital the last 4 months. i have had to drop my college courses and miss so much work due to severe abdominal pain and bad stomaches and nausea which i only thought to be the stomache flu, until it lasted more than three weeks. i evently got to see a gi doctor on an emergency visit who ran almost every test possible including a heida scan and everything came back neg. my hopes for findng my problem vanished. i am only 19 what was causing me to be hospitalized this much? my first doc could not find anything and basically told me it was all in my head and thats when i found my new doctor who said we WILL find your problem and if i cant i will send you to some who can, because i was steadily geting worse. i have now been through more test and finally found what my doctor thinks may be the cause of my problems which my first heida scan did not show. my gallbladder is only functioning at 10%. you really should suggest a heida scan be done and ask if  it could possibly be his gallbladder.i know what you are going through, its horrible, hoping that someone will be able to tell you whats wrong. well best wishes to you and your so.

[Refpoman]

Thanks Liz.   He did have a scope of his stomach and small intestine.  But are they able to view the whole small intestine when they do a scope?  

[lizziecee]

I don't know if this will help, but you might ask if they can do a calprotectin stool assay test on your son. This test, which is non invasive, can detect inflammation in the GI tract, but not specifically where. If higher than the norm of 20, this does give the gastro enough evidence for further invasive testing. Has your son had an endoscopy of his small intestine? I don't know what EGD means.  As the colonoscopy has been clear for obstruction and inflammation, it might be that his problem is in the small intestine, which a colonoscopy can't reach.  It just may be the start of Crohn's, which can appear in children as young as 6 yrs. Sorry I can't help further.

Liz.