tummy troubles

Not sure what's going on with Lucy, but she's been having lots of tummy trouble this past week.

Lucy's normally a "groovy pooper" and goes 1-3 times a day! But over the last week her tummy has not been feeling good.

Last Tuesday, she woke from her nap and complained her tummy hurt. She wasn't running a fever, she had a good appetite and she was running and playing. She complained 3 more times before bed, but I didn't know what to do for her. She didn't have any other symptoms.

At 11pm that night, she woke up screaming and crying and when Dan got her calmed down and asked what was wrong, she said her tummy hurt. Dan rocked with her for a bit and she seemed ok so he put her back in bed, but the moment she laid down flat she started screaming again. She also started shaking from head to toe-almost like she did one other time when she had a high fever- but she didn't have a temp at all.

Not knowing what to do and being a little scared for our daughter, we threw on some clothes and headed to the ER. By the time we got there, Lucy seemed to be doing better, but was still a little upset at first. Once we were in a triage room we changed Lucy into a gown and she happily laid on the bed and she was acting fine.

We were there for 2.5 hours and Lucy was really good the whole time. She thought it was great cause they gave her stickers and a popsicle. They had done a urinalysis and it did show some bacteria so they were going to treat her for a UTI.

By the time we got home it was 3am and we were all exhausted. Lucy went right back to bed and didn't complain anymore about her belly.

The ER wanted me to follow up with Lucy's regular doctor, so I called Wednesday and got her an appt. for Friday morning. I felt a little silly making an appt when she seemd fine and was not complaining anymore.

Well...Friday morning Lucy woke up crying that her belly hurt again. She cried off and on till we got to our 10:10 appt. I was glad the doctor could see how she was acting when her tummy would start to bother her. 

Because of some changes in her bowels over the last week, the doctor ( and I thought this too) thought it was constipation. She sent us for an x-ray to make sure there was no inflammation in the bowel and then we'd go from there.

Luckily, the x-ray looked normal, so we were told to give Lucy some Miralax to help get things moving. In the meantime we'd gotten home, eaten a little lunch and put Lucy down for a nap. Not long after laying Lucy down, she started crying about her tummy. I knew if it was bothering her she would not be able to sleep. So, I had her come downstairs and lay on the couch next to me and watch a movie. Her pains kept getting progressively worse and she was getting so worked up. Thank goodness Dan works from home and he could help me with her. She wanted to be held but she would thrash around so much from the pain that I couldn't hold onto her. He was able to hold her and walk around and get her calmed down. She got so worked up at one point, she threw up all over herself and Dan. 

Finally around 2:30 that afternoon, she had a bowel movement and from then on was a happy girl. She even had another one right before bed and I was hopeful that we were getting back on the right track. Not so...

Saturday brought the same thing. Lucy was fine till around 3pm when she woke from her nap. She told me her tummy hurt and again the crying episodes started off slow and over the course of 3 hours kept escalating till she was screamining every little bit- and then she eventally threw up again.

I called the doctor to see what else we could try and she suggested upping the amount of Miralax. So, I made some Koolaid (which I never do cause it's nothing but sugar) and mixed the "tummy medicine" in that. I was hoping the Koolaid would help her drink it down faster. She eventually drank it all but it took awhile. But, by about 6pm she was acting better and not complaining anymore. I got her to eat a little bit and I kept her up later than usual because I was hoping she'd have a poopy diaper before bed. 

I was a little worried about how she'd sleep but she did great and we didn't have a problem all night. When she got up this morning, we gave her some juice with more "tummy medicine" in it and she drank it all up.  I was a little nervous about taking her to church. I was afraid she might start complaining about her belly and I was a little concerned about the dirty diaper that she was going to produce after all that laxitive. I talked to her teachers though and explained what was going on. They were to page us if she went or complained at all.

I went to get her from her class and was told she'd just gone and so I was very thankful. We've since had 2 more major poopy diapers. The Miralax is working.

I'm not sure where we are to go from here. I need to call the doctor tomorrow. I don't want to have to keep giving her the Miralax, but I don't want her to be having stomach aches either. Not sure what the game plan will be. It's just very bizarre that she's gone from one extreme to the other. We've not changed our diets in any way, she has always eaten a ton fruit and is a big water drinker...so I can't help but worry about what's going on in her little belly.