When is this stomach virus ever going to go away? That’s what I kept thinking about my daughter being sicking back in January of 2010. She had gotten “sick” a few days before school was to start (returning from Christmas break). I didn’t know then that this would be a health battle that we would still be fighting today. The road that we’ve traveled to find out her diagnose was so ULTRA frustrating. Healthcare in general needs an overhaul…but try having a teenage girl with some “mysterious” stomach problem.
She was experiencing constant nausea, abdominal pain, and vomiting. She would vomit mainly several hours after eating, when it got so bad that she wasn’t hydrated she would get admitted to the hospital for a few days for “bowel rest.”
The doctors, nurses, and others, first thoughts – she’s a girl, she’s going thru puberty, life seems tough, girls just keep everything in, and so on. I’m not here to say that’s not true for some. I’m here to say that it took over a YEAR to diagnose my daughter because 1 test wasn’t ran. Yes, 1. She had all kinds of tests, but not the ONE. She even had her gallbladder removed, but it didn’t solve the symptoms. No, she doesn’t have a life ending illness. She does have a life changing one.
After numerous hospital visits in 2010, counseling, lessons in bio-feedback and other treatments, she was admitted for a 31 day visit to the hospital in January of 2011. It was during this visit that she finally had that one important test. It wasn’t without drama. We had to beg to get the test ran. Honestly, I think the doctor ran the test just to shut me up. It was a different tune when the results were delivered.