difficult child and his stomach-update

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
difficult child has been complaining on and off of stomach pains since last Thursday which is when we increased his Topamax. Sometimes he complains of sharp pains, other time sore muscles, and still other times it is more like an upset stomach. He has vomited a couple of times over the last three days. Much of the time he seems to be perfectly fine with no pain whatsoever. At first we thought he was constipated but now it is beginning to remind me of the stomach migraines he had a couple of summers ago.

The thing with that theory though is Topamax is supposed to help with stomach migraines.

I guess I'm wondering if anyone knows if an increase dosage in the Topamax like this could cause such an upset stomach? I plan on calling his doctor tomorrow because this afternoon he has been really out of it. I just don't know whether to call his pediatrician or his psychiatrist.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Poor kid. I'd ask the psychiatrist too. pediatrician docs don't use it much.

Stomach migraines? Is that what they call the stomach problem or does it also develop into a headache, too? I've not heard of this and am curious.

Hope it gets straightened out for him soon.

Hugs
 

Janna

New Member
Aww, poor little guy, Sharon :frown: I dunno about the Topomax really, but I'm sure TM gave you a great link, maybe you can find something there.

Maybe it's just coincidence and he ate something that didn't settle or something?

Hope he feels better.
 

smallworld

Moderator
Sharon, I'd check with the psychiatrist, but difficult child may need to be seen by the pediatrician if the psychiatrist doesn't think his symptoms are related to Topamax.

Good luck. Let us know what happens.

 

AllStressedOut

New Member
I'd ask if his pain is in a specific area. I'd be worried about appendicitis. My oldest difficult child had this last summer. doctor said, (Not to be gross) but he says a ball of bowel (nice word) stops up an area and gets infected and causes appendix to get infected. Many of the medications can cause constipation and make this more probable. If its on his right side I would really want the doctor to look for this. If it is this and you catch it before it ruptures, its 24-48 hours in the hospital, if its after it ruptures, its a week and much more painful. My oldest difficult children pain came and went, it wasn't constant like others have told me who had it.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Considering it's what we're worrying about too with difficult child 3 at the moment - yeah, I was also thinking appendicitis. It needs to be checked out.

There is acute appendicitis, which needs fast action and surgery to remove the thing before it bursts. And there is chronic appendicitis, which is a bit different. It is rarely in danger of bursting - it can go from chronic to acute, but it can hang around for months or years before it does so.

Acute appendicitis has some very clear hallmarks, as a rule. One includes rebound tenderness. You really need a doctor to check this, and if you have a difficult child with any Sensory Integration Disorder (SID), they may not respond to pain ini the same was others do.

With a grumbling appendix, you don't always get rebound tenderness. Or you might have it one day, but not another. Our family history on both sides - we have never had acute appendicitis, it's always been chronic. But when the appendix was removed, it was found to be inflamed, so it's not a case of removing a healthy organ by mistake.

easy child 2/difficult child 2 had hers removed at the end of March, after having been ill since New Year.
difficult child 3's symptoms started last Saturday. he's had nausea, abdominal pain and it just hasn't gone away. It has fluctuated a bit, that's all.

To check the diagnosis a bit more, they did an ultrasound on easy child 2/difficult child 2. As the radiographer was scanning right over the appendix (I was watching it on the screen) my daughter was in pain. As they moved away from the appendix, her pain eased. The radiologist checked it and felt she wasn't in sufficient pain for it to be her appendix - the abnormality he saw on the scan was a bubble, some sort of artefact or blip on the screen, meaningless. I didn't agree, but I'm not the doctor. Added to this - she also has Sensory Integration Disorder (SID), her pain reaction (or lack of) shouldn't have been given so much importance. I explained my concerns to the GP and later to the specialist, who agreed with me - there was sufficient likelihood of appendicitis to justify removal.

The ultrasound is a standard abdominal one, like you get in pregnancy. Drink lots of water, hold it all in. They're examining every possible abdominal cause, including any bowel obstruction. With the appendix, they're looking mainly for faecoliths, small hard lumps which form from bits getting trapped and going stagnant in the appendix. It's a vestigial pouch off the intestine so it's prone to this sort of thing happening. Acute appendicitis happens when the appendix gets an infection or major inflammation, from having a foreign body in it (such as faecolith). Research has found a high incidence of faecoliths found in chronic appendicitis dealt with by surgery.

So, it could be his medications. It could be appendicitis (of various kinds) or it could be something else. Never assume that it has to be connected to the difficult child-ness.

Good luck in finding out. It's awful when your kids are in pain.

Marg
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Thanks everyone! I've decided to call both doctors. When I was talking with husband last night and wondering if it was due to the medication increase he said he didn't think it was because he thought difficult child had been complaining of the pain a day before the medication increase so I guess I'll just call both to be safe as I was supposed to check in with the psychiatrist anyways to let him know how difficult child is doing. He has been behaving much better but, of course, I don't know if that is because he has been feeling sick or the increase in the medications!

Marguerite & Allstressed-I had only hear of the acute appendicitis before-thanks for the good info.

TM-Thanks for the link!

Lisa-A stomach migraine is a lot like the headache migraine only the pain is in the stomach not the head. The same medications used to treat headache migraines are used to treat stomach migraines. difficult child had them 2 summers ago-it took us forever to figure out what was going on.

I'll update once we have been to see a doctor! Again thanks you!
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Stop press on chronic appendicitis - we saw the doctor today for difficult child 3, she said that ultrasound is not considered accurate enough to visualise the appendix, she's ordered an abdominal CT scan. Maybe tomorrow...

Just thought you needed the more up to date info.

Marg
 

Alisonlg

New Member
Stomach migraine...that is interesting. I had never heard of that before! So, you'd have the same symptoms...pain (just in the stomach), nausea, sensitivity to light/sounds, vomiting, etc. Huh. I'm a migraine sufferer (also on topamax) and I also get unexplained bouts of stomach pains, which the Dr has deemed gastritis. Next stomach ache, I'll be curious and pay attention for other migraine like symptoms, just for the heck of it. Wonder if a triptan would knock it out, rather than suffering with a stomach ache for 3-4 days! Worth a shot, right? Very interesting!

I hope you get your difficult child's stomach pains sorted out! I hope it's not appendicitis! Good luck!
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
We took difficult child to see his pediatrician this morning. He says he doesn't think it's appendicitis and he doesn't think it is a kidney issue or anything serious. He thinks it might be a localized infection or possibly but he doesn't think the stomach migraines.

He didn't seem overly concern but said if he started throwing up a lot to take him to ER. I wasn't able to get in touch with the psychiatrist.

We decided to delay our trip to Green Bay until at least tomorrow. Poor kid has done not a single thing all day. Just been laying on his stomach. Right now he is sleeping. It is so strange and sad to see him like this.
 

Sara PA

New Member
"Stomach migraines" is what my old GP said to call my partial (abdominal) seizures so I wouldn't have to say "epilepsy" back in the days when a lot of people still whispered it.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Well, I'll be darned. I swear I learn so much from this board.

I hope difficult child starts feeling better soon. Glad to hear pediatrician doctor doesn't think it's serious.

Hugs
 

Marguerite

Active Member
Something else to consider, coming out of today's CT scan on difficult child 3 - constipation. And this CAN be connected to medication, or diet, or Sensory Integration Disorder (SID). Definitely Sensory Integration Disorder (SID), in difficult child 3's case. He simply doesn't feel the signals from his body telling him to 'go'.

We're dealing with the constipation and then seeing what is left.

There are always so many things to consider!

Marg
 
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