intestinal pain in my 10 year old

Hi Brenda-

Thank you for your reply.  Well a lot has happened since my last post.  We took my daughter to see another GI and he sent ordered blood work and stool samples to be collected.  When he got the results of the blood work he was extremely concerned about her very low albumin levels and subsequently admitted her to the hospital.  She underwent extensive testing, including colonoscopy, endoscopy, ct scan, upper GI series, ultrasound, further blood work and an albumin infusion.  There is no evidence that she has celiac (although she does carry the gene).  Pathology results evidence crohns.  It is also believed that she has at least one stricture in the duodenum.  Doctor believes she is currently malnourished and believes the crohns and malabsorption has caused significant delays in her growth.  Surgery was recommended. We went to another doctor for a 2nd opinion.  This doctor is one of the top pediatric IBD specialists in the country.  She is having her team of radiologists review all of the radiology records before giving an opinion on surgery.  She wants to determine if there are actual strictures present and if the strictures are the result of scar tissue (which would likely require surgery) or inflammation.  She has a very aggressive approach to medicine and believes that most children are "undertreated" when it comes to crohns.  She mentioned remicade and possibly another drug in combination with it.  I was also told I would need to have my daughter immunized before proceeding because there would be too great of a threat of contracting one of these childhood diseases while taking immuno-suppressents.  My daughter is not vaccinated.  I've never even given her tylenol or motrin.  I am really getting outside of my comfort zone with the suggestion of such aggressive treatment.  However, I am very concerned that she not get any further behind in terms of growth and development and that she not miss the window of time in which to catch up.  I'm also concerned about her low albumin levels and low energy.  Since being in the hospital, she has maintained a liquid/soft food diet and it is the first time in 3 months that she hasn't had any stomach aches.  She continues to take probiotics, omega 3-6-9 oil, vitamin c, liquid multivitamins and coconut oil.  Can this be treated without western medicine?  And I'm not sure I have the time to give it a chance because of her low protein levels and possible strictures.  I look forward to your response.  Thank you SO much!

Hi Brenda-

My daughter has been having inflammation in her small intestine for the past few months.  She was seeing an acupressurist/chinese herbalist for eczema last May and it was first observed then (although I think it was present even before that time).  This summer, she began having abdominal pain ranging from very severe (where she was doubled over in pain on the floor) to mild and tolerable.  Her stomach is always distended and hard and extremely loud at times.  She also began having significant anxiety this summer as well.  We suspected it may be celiac and removed gluten from her diet.  She was tested for celiac but had already been off of gluten for 2-3 weeks at the time of the test (doctor told us this wasn't a long enough time to be gluten free for it to impact test results).  Test came back negative on one part and weak positive on another part.  We're not sure if test was impacted by not eating gluten at the time (which is consistent with everything I have read on the subject).  Symptoms have decreased significantly since removing gluten and dairy from her diet.  She is also in therapy with a wonderful therapist who is addressing her anxiety.  We are unsure if anxiety could be the sole cause of her symptoms and if that is why the symptoms have decreased.  She has no food allergies.  Other blood work revealed inflammation levels elevated 3-4x normal.  Doctor believes it is Crohns and wanted her to undergo an immediate colonoscopy.  It was very difficult to communicate with this doctor and we didn't feel comfortable continuing in his care.  He was very conventional and placed no importance on diet or nutrition.  He also didn't do a full physical exam of any sort or take a full history and we felt he was just running a bunch of labs to get a diagnosis.  She takes coconut oil daily and has just started a regimen of chinese herbs for the GI system.  She also takes daily probiotics and we are trying to give her alkaline water as much as possible.  She has never been on antibiotics.  No diarrhea or constipation.  Poop  seems a little lighter in color than normal.  There is no Crohns in our families but there is colitis on the maternal side.  We are also wondering if this could be a parasite or some sort of bacterial infection.  We don't know how to proceed at this point and would welcome your feedback and recommendations.  We are trying to avoid running from doctor to doctor and are trying not to exacerbate our daughter's anxiety.  My daughter had a really bad day today and we are feeling anxious to find a plan for her. Also, please let us know if you have any referrals for a GI doc or naturopath in Los Angeles.  Thank you SO much for your consideration.  We really respect your knowledge in this area and have found your books VERY informative.