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This is a case of a 4 yr. old girl with constipation. Her
chief complaint seemed to match her obstinate temperament. The circumstances
around which her appointment was taken are important aspects of
the entire case. There was a frantic call by the relatives of the
girl urging for an immediate appointment. They explained to me that
the girl had suffered from constipation since almost a year and
currently had not passed a stool since the last 5 days. She belonged
to an Indian family who had settled in Africa and had been visiting
her relatives in India accompanied by her paternal grandparents.
The concerned relatives further elaborated that the entire household
was affected by the ailment of the girl. When I asked them to bring
her over, they further explained to me that as she was resistant
to any form of treatment they would have to convince the girl that
they were going to consult a doctor, concerning her younger male
sibling who was one and half yr. old and had remained behind with
the parents. These were the strange circumstances in which I relucantly
gave them an appointment.
During the entire consultation, the girl hardly spoke to me, except
towards the latter part. The entire symptoms were conveyed to me
by the relatives and the grandmother while referring to her in male
gender. At one point the child was busy playing with some toys and
there was a lapse on the part, of the relatives who mentioned "she"
instead of "he". The girl immediately shot them a glance
and confronted as to whom they were talking to me about. It took
a lot convincing to reassure her.
Since a year she could move her bowels only with the help of an
enema and this time even that was not having the desired effect.
She used to get sudden urges which were ineffectual, during which
she would throw all shorts of tantrums. She would want only the
grandmother to carry her, and move with her. It seemed like she
did not want any position that would give pressure to the rectal
area. During these urges she would scream and make unreasonable
demands which would go on for hours and finally out of sheer exhaustion
she would go off to sleep, by lying on top of her grandmother. She
would refuse to go to anybody else during these moments. The old
lady’s plight due to these demands was indeed pathetic. As the child
was refusing to eat anything this too was a big cause of concern
to the relatives. Any attempt on my part to befriend her was refused.
Talking about her nature to me, the grandmother informed me that
it was very difficult to please her, and she always appeared dissatisfied.
Inspite of having of lot personal possessions, she was always envious
of others who had things that she didn’t possess. This I could confirm
too. One of the rare dialogues that she had with me was when she
brought to my attention that she did not have a particular soft
toy in the shape of a snake that she had found in the toy basket
in my clinic. While mentioning this she refused to let go off the
object, and it took a lot of cajoling on the part of the relatives
to make her part with the desired object. She was extremely resistant
to talk about herself. It appeared that this difficult behavior
had got worse since the birth of her younger sibling. What is interesting
to note is that her constipation too surfaced around the same time.
The only other time that she agreed to talk to me was when I asked
her about her brother’s nature. She said "he is a very naughty
boy." She was very upset about the fact that her mother preferred
to give everything to him, rather than to her. The grandmother explained
the girl was very possessive of her and would not allow her to attend
the sibling even if he was desperately crying. |