Painful Days

These last couple of weeks my daughter has been feeling awful. She has abdominal pain, joint pain (in what seems like every single joint in her body), headaches, sore gums in her molar area, neck pain, back pain, thumb pain, and she's gassy. We went to the doctor last Thursday, he ordered some tests that all came back fine, and she is still feeling awful. She wakes up feeling bad, and spends the entire day complaining of something or another. And it's made her cranky. Very, very cranky. And you absolutely cannot blame her. But, it's making me cranky too. Very, very cranky. Especially because we can't figure out what is going on with her.

So, now what? What the hell are we supposed to do? She is feeling ill all day long (for a couple of weeks now) and the doctor can't find anything wrong with her. How much longer do we wait before going back to the doctor? Certainly it isn't normal for a child to feel this way, for this long, without cause or reason. It is difficult when, as a parent, you are responsible for how your child feels. And for the pain your child feels. I know she is waiting for me to do something about it. To make it go away. But, I have no idea how to do it. Absolutely no idea at all.

Meanwhile, my little trooper has been getting on with getting on. She goes to school, plays, reads, eats, and laughs. Halloween was a highlight. There are interruptions when she can't help but complain about her pain (quite often) and then she goes back to whatever she's doing. Yesterday, it was organizing some animals and dinosaurs into groups, based on whether they were herbivores and carnivores.

If only we all had the stamina of children.