Her Teen Daughter Said Her Teeth Hurt, And It Took Nine Hospitals To Find The Real Diagnosis

Fourteen years ago, TikToker Terry Downing (@terrydowning3) had her life changed forever. She was a mom of three daughters. Her middle daughter's name was Tessa, and at the time, she was 13 years old. She was a happy child who was part of a play and the Girl Scouts.

Terry was on a trip with her sister in New Orleans, while her daughters stayed at her parents' beach house. On July 8, 2011, Terry received a phone call from her mother telling her that something was wrong with Tessa.

She wasn't sleeping and was hardly eating at all. She kept repeating the same sentence, saying that her teeth hurt. Terry raced home to California and took Tessa to a pediatrician, who told her to take Tessa to the hospital immediately. The hospital did a bunch of tests and determined that she had anxiety.

However, Tessa was also having difficulty swallowing and saying more than one sentence. So, Terry went to another hospital. Again, she was told that Tessa had anxiety but advised her to see a psychiatrist and neurologist just to make sure.

In less than a week, Tessa dropped 10 pounds. It would take Terry an hour and a half to beg and coax Tessa to drink a nutritional shake since she couldn't eat anything. The family was exhausted because Tessa was keeping them all awake.

Terry drove to hospital after hospital, in addition to psych wards, because she felt that she couldn't keep her daughter safe at home.

Finally, she convinced a hospital to take Tessa. It was the first of nine hospitals to misdiagnose her with bipolar disorder.

She couldn't believe that Tessa had bipolar disorder because she knew friends and family members with it, and they never presented this way. Meanwhile, Tessa kept complaining that her teeth hurt.

She was transferred to a children's psych ward overnight. The family spent hours of their lives driving to visit her. One day, Tessa finally said something besides that her teeth were hurting. She told the doctor that her mom had hurt her, so they had to get social services involved.

Gorodenkoff - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual people

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Later, it was revealed that she meant her mom made her get braces, which hurt. Eventually, she was given enough medication to be able to talk to people again. The nurses at the psych ward told Terry to take her daughter home, even though she wasn't doing much better.

Tessa developed OCD. She had to go to the bathroom nonstop and drank several liters of water every day. She was obsessed with liquids and would even drink soap or nail polish. Terry ended up having to turn the water off in the house.

Tessa also couldn't go to school because she would walk around and punch people. And then, she started jumping out of windows, jumping out of cars, and running out of the house.

It took a long time to figure out what Tessa was suffering from, but she was finally diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis, a group of conditions that causes swelling in the brain.

Looking back, Terry wishes she had opened up to her friends and family about this issue sooner. She advises anyone going through a similar situation not to be afraid to ask for help and keep fighting for their own or a loved one's health.