taj616
New Member
Hello,
I am the mother of two beautiful girls. My 14-year old was diagnosed 4 years ago with Crohn's disease. Shortly after, my (now 11-year old) started with similar bowel symptoms which ended up being IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) which I too suffer from.
My Crohnie has been in a remission state due to Remicade infusuions every 8 weeks. So she's living life as best she can with little to no significan digestive issues. The 11-year old takes daily fiber therapy to relieve her sypmtoms.
Two years ago, my 11-year old got carsick for the first time during the summer before 4th grade. She refused to go in the small car where it happened for long trips believing she wouldn't get sick in the van. Then when school started and our bus route changed, I got calls that she felt sick in the office 2-3 days a week...which turned into me driving her to school because she was afraid she'd get sick on the bus...which turned into a fear of field trips which require a bus to get there. We struggled with this her entire 4th grade year...doing counseling to try and manage things. We succeeded in getting her back on the bus by Christmas and when it came to the spring fieldtrip to go 'caving' which she worried about for a day and a half before it even happened...we used a reward system for getting her to go without freaking out. It worked and the rest of the year went well. We had trouble that summer getting her to drive up north (a little over 2 hours) because she was worried about getting sick...so we didn't go hardly ever.
5th grade started and the bus was fine, but then she started to be overly concerned about having a stomach ache and if she was going to vomit. Then became concerned when other students got sick at school or even knew someone who was sick and wondered if she could get it from them. Missed days at school for said stomach-aches....was late many days 1-2 hours because her stomach didn't feel right. We saw our primary care physician who took blood, tested for h-pylori (which can cause stomach ulcers) tested for inflamation, etc and found everything to be normal. So we went to another counselor, worked on deep breathing and journaling which seemd to help a bit --but I felt like the minute she'd feel anything in her belly she was worrying about it. She thew up at school once (in the nurse's office) and was legitimately sick with a fever and I told her the rule for staying home from school is she has to have a fever or is vomiting. Doesn't always work to convince her. Her worries get progressively worse because the stomach aches are more frequent. Doctor says we need to see a psychiatrist because she believes there isn't anything physical going on, that the problem is mental and the way she's processing information in her brain. I agree. She's putting off hanging with friends because she's got stomach aches
We got in with a new therapist last week and finally got to see the psychiatrist (at the same facility) yesterday (6/15) who talked with us at great length about what's been going on and because it's been two years and things are getting worse he felt medication would help her, especially working with the therapist (every week) to manage her fears.
It took 45 minutes of crying and saying I can't do it repeatedly this morning before she finally took the 5mg of generic prozac. She's worried it'll hurt her stomach...she's worried ANYTHING will hurt her stomach. I told her it's her worries that are making her stomach hurt and she has to trust that the doctor knows...but she always doubts asking me "how do you know????"
I'm hoping the prozac works to calm her thoughts so she can focus on herself, which she seems to have lost interest in at times. So she can focus on using strategies to tell herself everything will be okay.
I'm just wondering if our situation sounds similar to anyone else and what your experience has been. What's worked and what hasn't. She's a beautiful, caring and smart girl who used to be fearless. I want her to feel that way again. Thanks for reading, sorry it's so long.
Tammy
I am the mother of two beautiful girls. My 14-year old was diagnosed 4 years ago with Crohn's disease. Shortly after, my (now 11-year old) started with similar bowel symptoms which ended up being IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) which I too suffer from.
My Crohnie has been in a remission state due to Remicade infusuions every 8 weeks. So she's living life as best she can with little to no significan digestive issues. The 11-year old takes daily fiber therapy to relieve her sypmtoms.
Two years ago, my 11-year old got carsick for the first time during the summer before 4th grade. She refused to go in the small car where it happened for long trips believing she wouldn't get sick in the van. Then when school started and our bus route changed, I got calls that she felt sick in the office 2-3 days a week...which turned into me driving her to school because she was afraid she'd get sick on the bus...which turned into a fear of field trips which require a bus to get there. We struggled with this her entire 4th grade year...doing counseling to try and manage things. We succeeded in getting her back on the bus by Christmas and when it came to the spring fieldtrip to go 'caving' which she worried about for a day and a half before it even happened...we used a reward system for getting her to go without freaking out. It worked and the rest of the year went well. We had trouble that summer getting her to drive up north (a little over 2 hours) because she was worried about getting sick...so we didn't go hardly ever.
5th grade started and the bus was fine, but then she started to be overly concerned about having a stomach ache and if she was going to vomit. Then became concerned when other students got sick at school or even knew someone who was sick and wondered if she could get it from them. Missed days at school for said stomach-aches....was late many days 1-2 hours because her stomach didn't feel right. We saw our primary care physician who took blood, tested for h-pylori (which can cause stomach ulcers) tested for inflamation, etc and found everything to be normal. So we went to another counselor, worked on deep breathing and journaling which seemd to help a bit --but I felt like the minute she'd feel anything in her belly she was worrying about it. She thew up at school once (in the nurse's office) and was legitimately sick with a fever and I told her the rule for staying home from school is she has to have a fever or is vomiting. Doesn't always work to convince her. Her worries get progressively worse because the stomach aches are more frequent. Doctor says we need to see a psychiatrist because she believes there isn't anything physical going on, that the problem is mental and the way she's processing information in her brain. I agree. She's putting off hanging with friends because she's got stomach aches
We got in with a new therapist last week and finally got to see the psychiatrist (at the same facility) yesterday (6/15) who talked with us at great length about what's been going on and because it's been two years and things are getting worse he felt medication would help her, especially working with the therapist (every week) to manage her fears.
It took 45 minutes of crying and saying I can't do it repeatedly this morning before she finally took the 5mg of generic prozac. She's worried it'll hurt her stomach...she's worried ANYTHING will hurt her stomach. I told her it's her worries that are making her stomach hurt and she has to trust that the doctor knows...but she always doubts asking me "how do you know????"
I'm hoping the prozac works to calm her thoughts so she can focus on herself, which she seems to have lost interest in at times. So she can focus on using strategies to tell herself everything will be okay.
I'm just wondering if our situation sounds similar to anyone else and what your experience has been. What's worked and what hasn't. She's a beautiful, caring and smart girl who used to be fearless. I want her to feel that way again. Thanks for reading, sorry it's so long.
Tammy