The UTI’s she’s had (four since May) have been ecoli for three of them and then klebsiella for the last one, with the most recent one also having the kicker of being and antibiotic resistant strain. After discussion with a pediatric infectious disease doctor, the decision was to go with an antibiotic that was stronger and more commonly given to adults. And it worked. Today she has nothing at all in her urine.
And while that’s a win, we still have the stomach ache thing going on. The problem from a medical standpoint is where the pain is emanating from—an inch to the left of her navel. And that, from an anatomy standpoint, isn’t anywhere, unless it’s serotonin-related stress tightening of the muscles in her abdomen, which is what Dhruti thinks is the most likely cause.
The pain seems to be worse when something stressful (school in particular) is about to happen, is happening or she’s thinking about happening. It might be going out to dinner as well, or anything she’s unsure about with the diminished vision. But mostly, it’s school.
Today it took me twenty minutes to get her into the building and off with her braillest when we arrived after her doctor’s appointment. And this has never, ever happened before. Ever. She says standing up, sitting down, bending and doing all sorts of things in school hurt her. But, she told me, iPad and chocolate don’t bother her stomach…hmm…
I left her at school and went to pick up a prescription for her for a possible follow-on yeast infection from all the antibiotics when I got an email from her VI teacher, saying she was having a hard time at school and they wanted to know what to do because they knew it was likely anxiety. They didn’t want to take her to the office to call us only to have us say we didn’t want to come pick her up, realizing that might be more anxiety overall. I hadn’t had a chance to meet her VI teacher yet, but we had been exchanging emails on several things and I have been very appreciative of the support she, my daughter’s braillest and main teacher have been giving her, understanding she’s having a hard time.
I called Dhruti and she said to definitely not pick her up from school. She had advice though: give her anything sensorial to do like kinetic sand, theraputty, something she could touch and manipulate with her hands. Also, if she had something from home like a stuffed animal she could hold, that would help. We’d talked about this last week and when I described to Dhruti what was going on she said the location and description from my daughter of the pain is what happens to children when the serotonin from anxiety causes abdominal, visceral pain.
I emailed school that I was on the way in with a stuffed animal (Pink Panther) and a small blanket. If she was having a hard time, have her hold the stuffed animal and put the blanket over her. My daughter does this all the time—curling up in a ball and pulling a blanket over her. When I got to school I met her new VI teacher who said she hated it that my daughter was disliking school so much. I felt badly, her with a new student who from all appearances, didn’t want to be there with her. I said I was pretty sure it wasn’t school, it was the drop in vision—that she loved school last year.
Her VI teacher and her Braillest met me at the front of the school and said the sad thing was my daughter just wouldn’t engage in school. She just was refusing to do anything. Or at least some of the time she was. I asked if they could meet with Dhruti tomorrow at 11:45 to discuss? Dhruti would have helpful advice I thought, being an expert in children suffering through trauma and knowing my daughter since her initial loss of vision.
This afternoon when my daughter got home I was expecting to hear about school being awful, but she said, “I had a good time this morning.” We got there shortly before lunch, so I wasn’t sure when, but apparently some of the reading work she had done was fun. I asked her though if her stomach had been bothering her. She said it did, but she had tried not to vomit.
We met with her teacher tonight at a meet the parents meeting of all the parents in the class. We all agreed we need to have a meeting together to see if we can get a plan to best help ease any anxiety my daughter's having. That’s the next plan. My daughter doesn’t seem to get a break.
The Big Boy Update: My son was very cross about having to do homework this evening. I told him before bed tonight that I put out tomorrow’s homework (that he’d already picked out) so he could do it before camp. That way he could relax when he got home with some screen time. He told me that this morning he hadn’t had time to do his homework to which I reminded him he had gotten up and turned on the Nintendo Switch in the bonus room before we realized he was awake, using up a lot of his morning homework time. I asked him if I needed to take the switch downstairs tonight so he wouldn’t be tempted tomorrow? He said, “no, I can handle it.”
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