Health Phobia

What am I gonna do with My Miss E?  She is my oldest, the one who has had probably the most medical issues out of all 3 girls (which really  hasn’t been a lot).  She is the only one who has had to have surgery (a pretty traumatic one at age 2 1/2) and she has all the allergies.  Besides her peanut and tree nut allergies, we just found out she is allergic to most trees, weeds, grasses,etc.  She will be dealing with allergies from Spring to Fall.

And I think all of this has led to her being completely freaked out and scared of any little pain that she experiences.  Any pain she gets sends her into a panic.  She wants to know if me or ML have ever experienced a pain like it.  What happened to us when we had that pain?  She wants to know what could be causing the pain?  Does she need to go to the hospital/doctor?   When will the pain go away? 

She gets short of breath and starts to cry and becomes extremely upset.  We just don’t know why she is like this.  She was young at the age of surgery and probably really doesn’t remember it, but somewhere along the way it has made an impression in her brain.  It has traumatized her forever. 

She is by definition a Hypochondriac.   I googled it and the definition completely matched her even at this young age of 9.  Not sure how we are going to handle this.  I have talked with her Pediatrician and we are going to just monitor it for right now.  But if it starts to get worse, we will need to consult a Psychiatrist.  

So right now we are just going to be gentle with her and love her through it.  This is an anxiety disorder, which does run in our family, so we do need to keep an eye on it.  Let's hope this is just a phase and she can just naturally grow out of it.