Abdominal Pain

[Lottie]

I wonder if you can help my daughter is coming up for 15, she was born at 37 wks in Tooting Hospital London by Caesarean Section. At my 32 week scan they discovered she had Gastroschisis (when the Intestine grows on the outside of the tummy), Dr Capps performed an operation immediately, all went extremely well and she had no further problems.

My daughter started her periods in 2010 they were very erratic sometimes for a few days then nothing for a couple of months and then they would start again for three weeks etc, they were very heavy but she had no discomfort. We decided to give them six months to settle down.

We moved to Australia as a family with work in 2010, which my daughter was happy about. In February 2011 she had a month long period we visited our Doctor who suggested my daughter start taking the pill to help settle her periods down, my daughter didn’t feel ready for this and decided to give it some thought, at this time the Doctor took bloods to check everything was ok, she was slightly Anaemic so she was prescribed Iron tablets. Then in April 2011 after a bad month long period she started experiencing severe stabbing pains in her tummy (lower left in particular, her appendix was taken out at birth) they would last a few seconds up to a minute every so often.

We went back to our Doctor who referred us to a Gynaecologist, the Gynaecologist took more bloods and tested for thyroid she also sent my daughter for an Ultrasound and X-ray, they all came back normal. With a very slight enlargement on her left Ovary but nothing that would cause any problems. The gynaecologist like our Doctor agreed at this stage it would be best to put her on the pill and she was prescribed Yaz plus Primolut N (5mgs) to initially stop the bleeding. Yaz was not the right pill for my daughter who is now on Valette. The pain got continually worse but the periods settled.

In October 2011 we went back to our Doctor as the stabbing pains were more frequent and causing her a lot of pain. We were then referred to a Paediatrician, the Paediatrician decided it was not a Paediatric problem as she had no trouble with passing stools or sickness, he did refer my daughter onto his Gynaecologist who thought that it was both adhesions and peritoneal irritation but we were told that there was little you could do for either and suggested she took her pill continuous until she has breakthrough bleeding and then take a week break. Also she recommended Buscopan, this took the edge off of the pain slightly.

At the end of January 2012 we returned back to the UK. My daughter is still experiencing extremely bad pain everyday and its affecting every aspect of my daughter’s life and has totally changed her personality. We have been back to our Doctor here and are going back around the loop waiting for a Paediatrics appointment. Over the last couple of months my daughter has been trying different types of pain relief/anti inflammatory tables – Naprogesic, Panadeine, Mebeverine, Dicolfenac Sodium, Merbentyl Dicycloverine and Alerine to help relax the gut. We have taken a food diary and have not noticed any links to food. We have also looked into IBS but apart from abdominal pain she suffers with no other symptoms and her pain in now continuous, her tummy is very painful to touch and if we are in the car and go over a slight bump (one which I can’t even feel) it causes excruciating pain.

[Mr. Hugh Byrne, MRCOG]

I would ask for a referall to your local gynaecologist who has an interest in paediatric and adolescent gynaecology - it's not a brush off but this is an important stage in her life and it's best for you both to sit down with the consultant and make a plan...