New here...absolutely devastated

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone. My name is Crystal. I am new here and in desperate need of

support. Let me tell you what is going on with us and a little about my

daughter. Last month my daughter turned five years old. She was perfectly fine.

A few weeks ago she developed a bad cold that STILL has not gone away. About

this time she also had a problem with a bully at school who insisted that they

trade books at rest time every day. She told her no and the girl got mad and

made her cry. She was previously a little worried about this girl because she

pushed her on the first day of school. Yet, my daughter still wants so badly to

be her friend. About two weeks ago she started asking me to check her hands for

splinters. Not all the time, but maybe once a day. That same week she had a hard

time falling asleep at night because she was worried about a project she had to

do at school the next day where she had to poke holes in a piece of paper with

her name on it with what I am assuming was a thumb tack or something. She was a

fraid the tack would end up on the carpet and she would stick her hand on it.

She cried a little. We talked about it and she went to sleep. The next morning

she mentioned it again. We talked about it one time and she went to school. She

came home that day with the project complete and said it went fine and she was

happy she did it. Also a different morning that week she asked me (in a very sad

way) " Mommy, has anyone ever said they hate you? " Turns out a boy came up to her

at recess and said that a girl hated her but she had no idea why. She was really

upset by this. I think the girl didn't like that my daughter was playing with

someone that was " her friend. " I told her that it was that girls loss and not to

let it bother her because some people are just hateful and not everyone has to

be our friend. That Friday my husband and I went with her to the Zoo for a field

trip. She was fine although a bit hyper and I had a hard time getting her to

listen to me. I had been having a hard time with her listening to me lately

though and I also attributed it to being at the zoo and being excited. She was

also still sick with a cold, but it wasn't that bad at the time. Over the

weekend her cold got a bit worse with a nasty cough. I kept her home from school

the next Monday, but sent her back the next day. I learned from her teacher

later that when she came back she washed or sanitized her hands all day long. On

Wednesday my husband picked her up from school and we learned that she had a bad

day and was crying and missed her parents. She also told us that she was upset

because she stabbed herself in the hand with scissors. I didn't even see a mark

though. That night, I read to her and put her to bed as normal, but then she

called me back up and was crying because she said she didn't want to use

scissors anymore because they might poke her eye out. She was very concerned

with it, but she calmed down and went to sleep pretty fast. The next night at

bedtime, she was convinced that she had been bitten by a spider. She had my

husband check her whole body all over and the bed several times. It was a 30

minute process. I came up to relieve him and I spent the next 20 minutes with

her, reassuring her that there were no spiders in her room. We actually do have

an issue with brown recluse spiders in our home, but we have our house treated,

we rarely see one and she has NEVER been scared of them before. Friday night we

finally realized something was very wrong when she couldn't concentrate on

anything and kept asking us if various parts of her body were okay. She would

want us to look at her toes to see if they were okay and ask again and again and

again if they were. Then it was her arm, elbow, knee, leg, head, face,

EVERYTHING. She would barely touch something like the table or door and say it

hurt her. She couldnt stop. On Saturday my husband took her to an Open House at

the Fire Station that she wanted to go to and she asked if she had been hit by a

car as they were walking up. Then she was convinced that she had taken poison at

one of the exhibits where they discussed how some medicine looks like candy. She

asked the woman there repeatedly if she was sure. That was it, we took her to

the clinic since her doctors office was closed and they though maybe she was

having a reaction to the cold medicine she was being given. We discontinued and

waited a couple day but it just got worse and stranger. She asked if her arms

were still attached because she worried they may have been ripped off. (Found

out last night that she got that from the Greys Anatomy show I was watching a

couple of weeks ago that she just saw in passing. Then she wanted me to check

her pee-pee to see if it was hurt because she wanted to make sure she wasn't

hurt like a little boy who was raped by a teenager that she remembered hearing

on the news. (That was like 6 months ago.) It goes on and on and on. Monday

night we went to the Children's Hospital to find out what was going on. They did

blood tests, urine tests and a ct scan. They all came back normal. The only

thing they said was that she had some fluid in her ears and her sinuses were

really full. They called Psych who came and spoke with us and she told us that

my daughter seems to have OCD brought on by illness and anxiety. She also had

them do a strep test and we should have the results from that tomorrow. She said

it may clear up when she gets better or not go away and improve we just don't

know for sure. It feels like I lost my little girl. She can't stop having these

fears and worrying about everything and she is just not herself. She is acting

so strange and I don't know how to handle it or where to go from here. Is it

going to get better? Will she ever be normal again? Last night was so hard. It

took her 2 1/2 hours to go to sleep and that was only when we all decided to go

to bed and she slept with us. She seems to understand that she is acting

compulsive. She asks us what is wrong with her and she will say, " How do I stop

Mommy? I don't know how to stop. " I really need some advice or just some

support. Thank you. Crystal