I was contacted in early September by a father in New Zealand who had found this blog and whose daughter was experiencing very similar symptoms and treatment (or lack thereof) by the medical profession.
"Our 13 year old daughter has had LRQ pain for 4 months now and basically off school for most of that time. The pain started centrally near her navel and migrated to the LRQ. She has frequent headaches and it hurts to walk, jump etc... Her pain fluctuates between 3 & 8 and some days she is able to attend school. She has had all tests including an MRI and all negative for acute appendicitis.
I have long believed she has chronic appendicitis and just read your blog. The hospital have not completely ruled this out, but are wanting to 'treat' her for FAP which basically involves pretending nothing is wrong and waiting for her to magically get better.
Just wondering if you have any more relevant information or if any more came of your complaint?".
We talked about how the doctors treat teenage/pre-teen girls as though they have no ability to recognize their own symptoms (presumably too 'overwhelmed' with hormones to be able to judge their own pain). And that in the end, as parents, we do need to trust in their self-awareness and help them navigate through a medical system that has no faith in them.
Fast forward to yesterday:
"...finally had her appendix removed 10 days ago and the pain she has had for 8 months is now gone!
It will take her a little while to fully recover from the surgery but she is already back at school."
He has also shared some other reference on treatment of chronic RLQ pain in children:
"There are so many cases like this that it needs to be officially recognised as a condition. There are 3 reports which show an 8 - 9 out of 10 chance of an appendectomy resolving long term LRQ pain in children.Medical professionals who choose to ignore those statistics are quite simply negligent and liable for malpractice if they do not allow patients the 'option' of an appendectomy.We haven't had a biopsy report back yet and my guess is the appendix will appear normal in every known way. My brother had acute appendicitis and his appendix appeared fine after it was removed. I believe this is the case in about 15-20% of appendectomies. On that basis an MRI cannot be considered conclusive in diagnosing appendicitis."
Information that may help others out there experiencing the same situation.
