“Should I worry”
My daughter 14 has on and off upper left abdomen pain which spreads to her back, left armpit and she's experiencing joint pain. I've noticed she's been looking pale and her arm has some petechiae. I'm quite worried as the labs have called back requesting another blood test. What could this be?
Female | 14 years old
1 Answer
There are a number of possibilities. Infections are the most common cause of these types of issues in children. Some turn out to be viruses and no treatment is necessary, and things resolve with time. Other infections turn out to be treatable. Testing, and sometimes further testing is needed to figure out if there is a treatable infection. Autoimmune disease is another possibility, and also can take further testing to either diagnose or rule out. A malignancy isn't likely, but testing should be able to rule that out.
