A week or so I wrote about how Kate’s been puking intermittently for more than a month. (Actually it was more about me being a complete idiot, but I did reference Kate’s troubles.) In any case, the last week has been a flurry of tests, scans, and medicine. She’s had blood tests, upper GI scans, stool screenings (earned my mom stripes with this one), colon cleanses, and more, trying to determine why she’s been so sick to her stomach.
So far, we’ve determined that she has acid reflux and rotavirus.
What is rotavirus? I’m so glad you asked. According to cdc.gov…
Rotavirus is a virus that causes gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines). The rotavirus disease causes severe watery diarrhea, often with vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain. In babies and young children, it can lead to dehydration (loss of body fluids). Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe diarrhea in infants and young children worldwide. Globally, it causes more than a half a million deaths each year in children younger than 5 years of age.
Rotavirus was also the leading cause of severe diarrhea in U.S. infants and young children before rotavirus vaccine was introduced for U.S. infants in 2006. Prior to that, almost all children in the United States were infected with rotavirus before their 5th birthday. Each year in the United States in the pre-vaccine period, rotavirus was responsible for more than 400,000 doctor visits; more than 200,000 emergency room visits; 55,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations; and 20 to 60 deaths in children younger than 5 years of age.
So that’s exciting. Honestly, I was somewhat relieved by that finding, because it’s something that, while not pleasant, will eventually go away. My Google MD diagnosis had been a gluten sensitivity, which would have been much more complicated to deal with.
We are still waiting on results from a few tests, and because she had a combo of symptoms that is sometimes a red flag (waking up vomiting and right-side headaches), she is scheduled for an MRI on her brain. (Any Teen Mom 2 watchers out there? Every time I hear/say that phrase, I apply Leah’s accent.) Provided that doesn’t turn up anything exciting, that should be the end of it. And hopefully, with a daily regimen of Prilosec, we’ll be all done with the random puking.
Crossing my fingers.
I hope this clears UP soon!
UP
Geez! Rotavirus! I had google diagnosed her with a parasite, so this is much better. ALSO, next time I text you with “what’s going on with Kate’s tummy?” could you NOT make me wait til the next morning to read the answer in a blog post? SHEESH!!
Have they considered migraine? That might explain the one-sided headaches and they can definitely bring vomiting. I have heard of abdominal migraines that are mostly in the stomach area. When I was first diagnosed with migraine, the doctors scared me half to death making me have all kinds of tests and brain scans. It unusual but not impossible for a child to get migraines–and they don’t always come with all the typical symptoms.