Convinced my 3 year old has a brain tumor

[Clara983]

I'm deeply worried about my 3 year old at the moment and I'm convinced he has a brain tumor and is going to die soon. He's been having a headache for at least 5 days which already caused me to be worried, but the doc said it's probably just a virus (without proper examination, so it's just a pseudo diagnosis - i hate when they do that!). Now last night he woke up crying and had vomited in his bed. This completely freaked me out as I know that headache and vomiting is a brain cancer sign. I was hoping he would develope a fever and/or diarrhea so I could blame it all on a tummy bug or at least an infection - but he doesn't show any of these symptoms. In fact he still complains about headache today but hasn't vomited again, but also there are no other signs. I checked his temperature many times and he doesn't have a fever at all (he has 99,2°F/37,3°C).
I made my husband take him to the ER, I can't go there by myself because I'm 32 weeks pregnant with twins and I can hardly move. So my husband went there, yet we had a huge fight over this because he thinks I'm completely out of my mind and being totally irrational.

I don't know what to do. I cannot calm down. He acts totally normal though, no signs of pain or anything. But when I or my husband ask him if he still has a headache, he says yes.

My husband is still at the ER with him and I'm waiting for them to come home.

Any advice please?

[ankietyjoe]

Your husband is correct, you're being irrational...but I know how it feels. I rushed my son to ER when he was 6 because I 'thought' his heart rate was too high. Because of my fears (at the time) he was hooked up to an ECG and made to feel like something was wrong. The Doctor told me he shouldn't be there, and to control myself better next time. I appreciate the Doctor saying that to me.

Vomiting and headache is unbelievably common in children that age, whether they have a fever or not. You cannot POSSIBLY diagnose your child with Google. The only possible outcome is posts like this, where you're panicking about something that just isn't happening. My eldest son has a headache every single time he has a bug, whether he has fever or not.

Put Google away, and enjoy Christmas :)

[NancyW]

I know that headache and vomiting is a brain cancer sign.

Any advice please?

Yes... STOP GOOGLING.

Both my sons went through a headache period when they were real young. The whole thing, headaches every day, random vomiting. It eventually passed with both of them but my youngest now has migraines.

[jojo2316]

I can relate to your experience a little bit. When my little boy was about 4, he suffered from some severe headaches and feeling sick, then out of the blue he had a grand mal seizure. I honestly thought he was going to die right in front of me. I have never been so terrified. After his seizure he was very sleepy, had headaches and was sick. I thought, with 100% certainty that he had a brain tumour. It was perhaps the worst time of my life. We rushed him to the GP, who took his temp to see if it was a fever related seizure (it wasn’t), the. We had to take him to A & E. I had a small baby at the time so my husband had to stay with him in hospital and I was hysterical, thinking he was dying, and being away from him.
Anyway, long story short, he had a scan and there was nothing wrong with him! They thought he might be epileptic- but it turned out he wasn’t that either.
So - even when the symptoms seem utterly sinister (which your boy’s don’t) more often than not there is a benign cause.
Hang in there. And let us know how he gets on.

[jojo2316]

How is your little boy Clara?
Xx

[Worrywart84]

Any update from the ER?

I can understand this fear as I have experienced these terrifying Google-driven diagnoses with my own kids from time to time and if you let it get the best of you it’s just a terrible feeling. I can imagine being 32 weeks pregnant with twins only adds to the exhaustion of it all.

One possibility is he might just be saying he has a headache when you ask bc he picks up that youare obsessing over it. This has happened with my daughter. I will be like omg omg omg does your (blank) hurt and she will 9 of out 10 times tell me yes. But then I’ll say “does your hair hurt?” Or something equally silly and that will usually get a yes as well.

[Clara983]

I can relate to your experience a little bit. When my little boy was about 4, he suffered from some severe headaches and feeling sick, then out of the blue he had a grand mal seizure. I honestly thought he was going to die right in front of me. I have never been so terrified. After his seizure he was very sleepy, had headaches and was sick. I thought, with 100% certainty that he had a brain tumour. It was perhaps the worst time of my life. We rushed him to the GP, who took his temp to see if it was a fever related seizure (it wasn’t), the. We had to take him to A & E. I had a small baby at the time so my husband had to stay with him in hospital and I was hysterical, thinking he was dying, and being away from him.
Anyway, long story short, he had a scan and there was nothing wrong with him! They thought he might be epileptic- but it turned out he wasn’t that either.
So - even when the symptoms seem utterly sinister (which your boy’s don’t) more often than not there is a benign cause.
Hang in there. And let us know how he gets on.

Wow, this sounds horrible! I'm so sorry you went through such a thing. I'm really glad to read that all is fine with him these days.

---------- Post added at 12:31 ---------- Previous post was at 12:28 ----------




One possibility is he might just be saying he has a headache when you ask bc he picks up that youare obsessing over it. This has happened with my daughter. I will be like omg omg omg does your (blank) hurt and she will 9 of out 10 times tell me yes. But then I’ll say “does your hair hurt?” Or something equally silly and that will usually get a yes as well.

I was also wondering about that. I've been asking him 10 times a day in these past couple days and 9 out of 10 times he says yes. When I double check with a silly question ("Does your pinky toe hurt?") he will say no though. Still, when I ask him for a headache and he says yes, he sometimes puts his hand to his head to see if he can feel something, than he has to think for about 5 seconds before he finally says yes. My husband says he's playing games with me because he'll get attention.

---------- Post added at 12:40 ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 ----------


How is your little boy Clara?
Xx

UPDATE:
At the hospital, they did some basic neurological tests with him (flashlight in his eye to check for pupil dilation)and checked his reflexes and said everything is fine. They found his nose and ear channels to be congested and said this might have caused the headache. The vomiting wasn't concerning to them at all, he might have just ate too much crappy food - the vomit at night was actually a mixture of sausage and cookies from christmas dinner. Yet, this moring he had also had a slight diarrhea so I'm glad now because it shows it might have really just been an infection in his stomach.

Also, they told my husband to make sure he stays hydrated well as this can cause headaches, too. I gave him lots of water today (he's had 2 cups of water already which is really good) and now when I ask him for headache he finally says no.

He seems ok now.

Thank you guys sooo so much for all your replies!! Has really helped heaps. :hugs::hugs::hugs:

---------- Post added at 12:41 ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 ----------


Yes... STOP GOOGLING.

Both my sons went through a headache period when they were real young. The whole thing, headaches every day, random vomiting. It eventually passed with both of them but my youngest now has migraines.

I have migraines, too! It runs in our family. This could also be one reason for his headache.