Child Health

My 16 1/2 yr old has lost 23 lbs in the past 3 weeks and has had ongoing abdominal cramps/diarrhea especially in the morning to the point she sometimes has to take a shower.  At first I chalked this off as "stress" as it began on 8/25 and figured she was maybe nervous about the upcoming schoolyear, but, I really don't think this is what is causing it as she is doing well and no apparent stress or depression or anything like that going on in her life. 

The past week or two she was asking me how long food poisoning lasts, as she really isn't feeling well and this is going on for her a very long time.   She has ongoing nausea and loss of appetite.  Eats and gets bad cramps and/or bad stools.  Worse in the AM.  Feels tired.  No temp.  No signs of intential weight loss, or eating disorder at all .. she has come to me today very concerned bcz this is the first time in over a month she got on the scale and was shocked to see she went down to 184 from 207 (she is tall and big boned like me).

This all started on 8/25 a few hours after eating at a fast food rest (she had either chicken or burger  .. I'd have to ask her).

Will call for appt tomorrow @ the ped.  I am sure they will address it with blood/stool labs and I have an excellent Pedi GI if she needs one ..... she has history of 5yrs ago having a small ulceration that went away (from arthritis meds at the time but all is fully resolved for years now).

I'm wondering if it is bacterial.

I feel bad for her .... not pleasant to deal with for so long.

P.S.:  She was at a water park back in mid-July and symptoms started 6 weeks later .. that seems a long time if it was from the water park doesn't it?

Also, Eve, she had a Varivax booster shot in June .. begining of symptoms would be 8 weeks since the shot ... I highly doubt it is from that, but I do have to at least explore it as when she was a toddler she got a bad round of alopecia 6 weeks after the first chicken pox vaccine and nobody ever can say if definitively yes or no from the shot but she had to have the booster as it is CDC recommended as she never had the pox illness. Ugh. 

Cheryl

Eve, thanks for your response.  No Blood .. U R correct.  The wt loss combo has me very concerned as this is a person who just cannot shake the weight and here it is flying off her ...............    The water park wasn't in July she corrected me that it was in June .. the July visit to the shore was water-park free.

A parasite would be a nice,easy fix compared to other reasons :0

Will keep you posted, C~

Ped did an overnight strep culture, urine which showed some blood/ketones, and we have to prepare and send out 3 tubes with liquid in them + stool and one without liquid for lab testing for parasites, etc., etc.  I didn't get to speak with the Dr. on the urinalysis but the front desk said most likely from not eating right and/or the stooling problem.

She knows my dd very well since birth  & she *thinks* it may be parasitic or IBS but clearly something isn't right.   I asked about stress, etc., and she clearly felt not doing this like this, as well as no to chick. pox vaccine as Eve mentioned, too.

She put her on Prevacid for now as we await results, etc.  My daughter gets reflux sometimes and oftentimes get abdominal pain that Prevacid helps with .. she said it will help neutralize acid as her GI system is askew right now.

STUPID ME:  While obtaining the sample this morning I was getting sick as you can well-imagine and the contents of one of the vials for the sample spilled into the generic sampling that I was capturing from UGH UGH UGH so don't know if it voids the other tests as I took further samples from this sample that had liquid on it from the spill ...... I turned to "look the other way" and tilted the vial in error!!!!!!  HOW STUPID!!!!  But, I did get a clean catch of the one for Samonella so that is the good news of the morning I guess.  I'll tell the lab of my error and most likely will have to repeat this horrible chore, but just had to vent my frustration ACK!!!!!!

C~