Another Adventure in the ER

It seems that we can't stay out of the ER. One of my boys gets sick or seriously injured at least once a year. My youngest son was having terrible stomach cramps and spending lots of time in the bathroom, actually for over 7 days. It was getting progressively worse , to the point where he was in such pain that he was doubled over. It's tough being a parent and having to watch you kid suffer like that. Anyway, to make a long story short, we spent the typical 2 to 2.5 hours in the ER waiting to be seen and then another 1 .5 hours being examined, tested and etc. Didn't get home til 1 am. Tests came back negative. Diagnosis undetermined. This is nothing new, my son has been having stomach trouble off and on for about 3 years. He started missing a lot of school in the beginning. Took him to the doctor several times, finally went 3 hours away to Children's hospital to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. They told me they see hundreds of kids per week with this same problem and basically it's like irritable bowel syndrome.

I have done a lot of reading on irritable bowel and actually my son's stomach problems were better until now. I'm also looking into food allergies too as a possible cause. It's going to take a lot of detective work and I have to believe that we will be able to manage this. My older son had terrible migraines and I did a lot of research on it and found out how to manage it to the point where he was hardly having any. It's hard to listen to your child when he is in so much pain and he's telling you that he just wants to be normal and he can't imagine living his life like that. It just tears you up inside.