\u201cTeen stomach pain ignored\u201d sounds like the kind of headline people scroll past without a second thought\u2014something distant, impersonal, impossible to imagine happening inside their own home. I used to be one of those people. I never thought that phrase would come to define three of the longest weeks of my life, weeks spent watching my sixteen-year-old daughter slowly fade while being told\u2014over and over again\u2014that I was worrying for nothing.My name is Melissa Grant. I live with my husband, Derek, and our daughter, Hannah, in a calm suburb outside Denver. The kind of place where danger feels theoretical, where most problems are expected to resolve themselves with rest, soup, and time. At least, that\u2019s what I believed back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first time Hannah mentioned the pain, she stood in the kitchen doorway after school, backpack still slung over one shoulder. Her face was pale in a way I couldn\u2019t quite place. She pressed a hand to her lower stomach and looked almost apologetic for bringing it up.\u201cMom\u2026 my stomach\u2019s been hurting all day,\u201d she said quietlyI turned from the stove, concerned but not alarmed. I brushed her hair back and smiled.\u201cProbably something from the cafeteria,\u201d I said. \u201cSit down\u2014I\u2019ll make you some tea.\u201dShe nodded and tried to smile back. That night, she barely ate, pushing food around her plate until Derek finally noticed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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