Free Standing Fluid

[jlo1968]

My ten year old son woke up with severe pain under his left rib cage. I took him to the ER. After several hours in the ER the pain subsided and he was released. The blood work came back fairly normal and the sonogram showed nothing abnormal with the exception of Free Standing Fluid in the abdominal cavity. The doctor said that was very unusal but didn't seemed alarmed. He said for me to follow up with his pediatrician which we have an apt in the morning. Has anyone out there heard of this? Should I be worried?

[jlo1968]

My son hasn’t had a history of constipation….and unfortunately had experienced nausea and a soft stool before I took him to the ER. The pain under his left rib cage was pretty intense. He wasn’t even able to take a deep breath or stand upright. But I am relieved to hear that free standing fluid can be something other then cancer related diagnosis. Thank you.

[melipops]

Hi, we had freestanding fluid in our child who was 10 at the time. It worked out that he had constipation quite often and this was aggravating the whole gut. The paediatrician put him on stool softenerd and all sorts but we sorted it out eventually by ourselves with a high fibre diet. Hope this helps. Good luck tomorrow.

[geminigirl1963]

Hello - I just responded to your post in the gastro forum.  My parents live in Fredericksburg, I used to live in Fredericksburg and currently live in King George.

I'm glad to see here that you have an appointment with your son's pediatrician in the morning.  As I mentioned in my response to your other post, seeing a gastro doc may be in order (not sure, but thinking possibly) - I do know of a good gastro doc in Fredericksburg if you would like his name, however, I don't know if he takes pediatric patients.  He may, however, be able to give you the name of a good pediatric gastro.

There are a few things that this free fluid could come from, but the cause definitely needs to be looked into.  I'm a bit surprised they released him without finding the cause (although, depending on which hospital you went to, I'm really not completely surprised)  At the very least, I feel he probably needs a CT scan done to see if they can get a better determination of exactly what kind of fluid it is.  Of course, I'm not a doctor, but that's just my opinion - free standing fluid in the abdomen is NOT normal and I don't feel should ever be pretty much dismissed as "odd or unusual".

Please let me know what you find out from the pediatrician and also if you'd like the name of the gastro doc (if your pediatrician wants him to see one).  As I also stated in my other reponse, if your son's pain returns, he starts running a fever or vomiting, please do not hesitate to return to the ER or go to one of the other hospitals' ER's.