I got a phone call from my daughter in Indiana today... My almost 16 year old granddaughter has been having some symptoms that we just cant ignore... She has recently started losing alot of hair.. mom realised last night that granddaugters hair is unusually thin compared to 6 months ago... She has also lost about 30 pounds in two months, and is bruising very very easily. Daughter said granddaughter was wrestling with her sister, the other day, and the younger one bit this granddaughter... instead of the area getting red, it turned into an immediate bruise.. According to daughter she has bruises all over her legs... She has also become extremely tired all of a sudden, going to bed early instead of screaming to stay up till midnight, and seems to take alot of naps, and has also been having alot of headaches.

My first thought was anorexia or bulemia, but mom questioned her and has been watching her eating, and it doesnt appear to be an eating disorder... My second thought was "Oh God, please dont let her be pregnant or an std" Daughter is fairly secure that granddaughter isnt sexually active, but we will find out for sure with Tuesdays Dr.s visit. Daughter doesnt seem to feel that its any type of drugs, but again hopefull tues. dr's visit can rule that out, but mom is considering an impromtu drug test. My only other thoughts, is anemia, and the concept that I dont even want to think about, lukemia...... Somebody, please give me some other ideas of what it might be...something we might be missing! When my daughter called their new doctor friday, they schedualed an appointment for tues afternoon...which in and of itself is scary, because a normal new patient visit (my daughter has seen this doctor but granddaughter will be considered a new patient) normally takes three weeks, and they want to see her immediatly..... Come on guys...help me think.... any other symptoms we need to check before they go to the doctor..any other info we need to make sure doctor has a correct diagnosis.....Tell me that this can be something else other then whats lurking in the back of my head

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God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

losing hair, bruising easily and weight loss: could be an overactive thyroid or diabetes

Just checked. Not cancer; celiac disease. She is allergic to wheaty gluten. here is the issue, in severe cases, she will need a seperate toaster. Even a grain of wheat contamination can cause issues in some people. You can start treatment today to see if it helps. Go and get that gluten free food. Good luck.

I was considering some kind of food allergy also.

One simple way to test is to avoid eating the suspected food for one week. Check eveything she eats and make sure its not in it.

Then after one week take the suspected food and blend it in the blender with water to make a paste.

Now check her pulse for one full minute and record after she sits at rest for about 15 minutes

Now put some of the blended food in her mouth. Do not swallow.
Hold it in the mouth. Wait 10 minutes.

Check pule again while she is still at rest. Don't let her up and doing anything else that might make a pulse rise. If it it rises you likely have a food allergy.

Not eating for one week the suspected food will make her more sensitive to it for the test. Some highly allergic people can get very sick will allergic reaction during this test.. so be aware of that...

There also could be more than one thing going on at the same time... for instance, mineral deficiency and hypoglycemia and food and allergy all going on at the same time. Never assume that in a complex of symptoms all the symptoms are related to the same cause. The weight loss is the biggest concern to me. She may be eating very differently when she is not around family.

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Ok, I feel a bit better!!!! I will definitly pass on information.. I do know when mom was pregnant with her, that mom was extremely anemic, and has had anemia will all her kids... I also know that we have a family full of thyroid issues, so that might be a big part of the issue... at least I have things i can suggest to the daughter... and yes arrow, I dont trust everything my granddaughter says...did try to reinforce with mom, that it could be an eating disorder....now that school is out though, mom will be able to watch what she eats a bit better

thank you.... I feel a bit better!

Try the gluten free food for a few days.

Saved, definitly going to suggest it to my daughter....I can believe gluten problems, that is something that is very much overfed to most kids.... At this point, all I can do is pass on the info.... hopefully she will listen to me, usually she does, but she has a mother in law who is a nurse....so she is pushed in that direction, esp since mother in law lives in same town as her...but Im gonna keep sharing what I find out, and keep praying for a positive ending to this!!!

I will say a prayer, but diet is important. STRONGLY suggest it!

Saved, apparently my daughter had already thought of celiac and the gluten free, and plans on putting her on a gluten free diet asap, like I guess payday.... but in the meantime, I found out my granddaughter has been drinking apple juice like its going out of style. When she was young, she always had diarreah when she drank apple juice... So I told her to take her off the apple juice immediately, and wait the week and test her....then try the gluten....but dont change anything else until she kept her off the apple juice for a week.... From my experience, the food you eat the most, or crave the most, is usually the one you are most allergic to. It sounds like she is actually going to listen to our suggestions....thanks again everyone

by the way, if my dad died of lupus (SLE) does my grandkids have a better chance of having it? I need to check and see what the symptoms for that is. Which again, lupus can be controlled by diet. yes???

By the way Saved, while I believe with all my heart, in the power of prayer, and the miracle workings of God, I also believe that when Jesus said time and time again in the word, Go and sin no more, that He was basically saying stay out of what ever it was that was causing these problems in the first place! I dont believe that we should eat whatever we want and create these diseases in our bodies, and then expect God to miraculously cure us... my philosophy is a verse in the bible.... Having done all to stand, then stand..... I do, and have taught my kids, that we do everything we know to fix the situation, and then believe God will follow through.... I am not a name it and claim it christian.... I want to be a disciplined learner/follower of Christ...not a spoiled rotten brat

Just Me, a few things: Apple Juice stay away from that (unless you have a juicer and make it yourself). Most apple concentrate comes from china. As for Lupus, autoimmune, one needs to avoid dairy, take a ton of omega 3s and also DHEA.

I am a chrsitian also, except I need to stop swearing, smoking and getting drunk. But also, I need to stop arguing, Christ preached love, people like pat robertson preach something else.

Just me, I found this in my file today... it explains allergy tests better than what my recall could bring up.

THE TEST
Provided by Dr. Joel Wallach in his book, Let's Play Doctor.
"To perform this test, you learn your base pulse rate, then eat a single food (i.e., milk only, wheat only, etc.) and check your pulse 15, 30 and 60 minutes after you eat the single food item: and elevation in pulse rate of more than ten beats is an indicator that you are allergic to that food."

"A second method of allergy diagnosis can be used in conjunction with the pulse test is the diet diary: this is especially useful when emotional symptoms and headache are associated with food allergies. First, you eat a single food (do with pulse test) noting the time on a pad of paper, then record emotional symptoms and/or headache with the time; they symptom will appear within minutes to a few hours of ingesting the offending food (this includes hyperactivity and dyslexia). Do a six-hour GTT as almost everyone with food allergies has hypoglycemia because the celiac changes in the intestine prevent the efficient absorption of chromium."

Treatment of food allergies includes religious use of the base line nutritional supplements (be sure to use hypoallergenic supplements--no corn, wheat, soy, egg, or milk, avoid vaccinations that have egg, blood or beef origins:
vitamin C to bowel tolerance levels, vitamin A at 300,000 IU/day as beta carotene (carrots--not pills), bioflavonoids at 150-300 mg/day, zink at 50 mg t.i.d., chromium at 50-200 mcg t.i.d., betaine HCI and pancreatic enzymes at 75-500 mg t.i.g.15-20 minutes before meals, ACE sublingual or IV, five day rotation diets, avoidance of offending foods and patience!!! It takes up to 90 days to repair the intestinal injury (the good news is that repair will take place even if you're 100 year old!!!). IV hydrogen peroxide speeds up the healing process."

She's almost sixteen? Could be using diuretics to lose weight & it fits the symptoms. They're as easy to get at school as steriods & any other drugs.

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The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease
~Voltaire~

That is a realistic problem. Have a good friend (40) who I use to drool over. She weighed 150 and is 5 8'. She reads too much cosmo and went to a weight loss doc. She weighs 120 now and looks like shit, but she thinks she looks good.

Yep, body insecurities are a big problem.