VERY common. YSS in particular would draw attention to the tiniest of scratches. So would OSS and SD. Of course the BM got an extreme thrill by exaggerating any medical condition they had and running them through every test in the book.

And they wonder why medical insurance rates were and still are (even more so now) super expensive!

I feel your pain! BM is a bulimic and a hypochondriac. SS12 goes through phases where he can throw up on queue, have migraines, and horrible muscle pains that make him not be able to walk. DH says these are all things that BM does to get that extra attention she craves. SS12 does have ADHD and asthma, you'd think she would make him take his medicines, nope.

SS15 has the weak ankles too. Braces, ace bandages, and ice packs don't work when the only exercise he gets is on the XBOX or PS4. BM refuses to bring him to a doctor to actually see if there is a problem, she always tells him that he has "her family ankles", I guess they all have weak ankles.

SD9 is the same. Just on Sunday she "slipped" and hurt her ankle. She did this early in the afternoon, didn't say anything to anyone, she was skipping around and running all afternoon with her friends without problems, but then at 7pm at night, it became a huge "stop everything I'm really badly hurt" issue. DH didn't fall for it.

After came home a half hour late, said it feels like its swelling up, and had to ice and elevate it and needed an ankle brace for this morning for it.
She ALWAYS has huge aliments, gets EXCITED! when she has to go to the doctor or take medicine and tells EVERYONE!

BM gets "attention" from DH for SD's aliments so they just keep on piling up. I had to make freezer packs just for her, because she kept taking ALL of them for her little pinkey finger paper cut and leaving them out and then DD would come home from dance and not have one.

DD does dance 6 hours a week, and has a hyper-extended knee, she needs to ice it after dance but never could because the ice packs were always missing for "my finger hurts a little"
DD has alot of dance injuries, and she has been told to ice it, wrap it, brace it, do what you gotta do, but suck it up and DO NOT whine about it, your OUT OF DANCE!
We have no complaints from DD, she would rather die than stop dancing.

My bio-daughter is the hugest dramaqueen by temperament, has no pain tolerance whatsoever, has had all kind of upper respiratory issues her whole life, etc. but in comparison to the SKids, she's a freaking trooper!

Skids have more issues than I can count. SD10 has "reflux" without any actual physical evidence. Her tummy hurts a lot, and since there was NOTHING wrong on her scopes (yes, multiple), they put her on prevacid. It couldn't be that the child eats like a bird, mostly carbs and acidic foods. No one thought to modify her diet, just put her on meds. BM also thinks she has asthma (ruled out) and sever upper respiratory issues, as well as anxiety and depression. All without any evidence, of course. But SD feeds in because it's the only positive attention she gets from BM. And BM gets more opportunity to complain about DH, of course.

And then there's SS 5.5, who has a serious articulation delay, lots of fine motor issues, some gross motor issues, and some generalized developmental delays. He's had speech therapy and occupational therapy, but is still not functioning well at home or at school. Her solution is to take food dyes out of his diet, and nothing more.

It's crazymaking!

My SD's are coming out of it. 7yo..very slowly but it's getting better. I'm sure it would be much worse if BM saw them or talked to them more. The used to be really bad. BM would tell them they were sick so they couldn't come to her house and the pretended to be sick. I saw right through it but went along with it. We had other kids over playing outside, the "sickness" didn't last 5 minutes. SD was spilling it to me that BM made her say it so she could go to the bar with her boyfriend.

They have also been given prescription meds on numerous occasions by BM. Twice since I have been here, almost three times but she was busted the third time. Of course when the cops who excorted the ambulances to the hospital had DH call CPS they did nothing at all.

My sd17 is the biggest negative attention seeker i know. She twisted her ankle at school and then wore a brace for 3 months(was only supposed to wear it for 1 week). would run if she thought no one was looking. also researched bulemia, anxiety, bipolar, depression, odd on the net and then adopted "symptoms" of all of them. filed a false rape claim at school, was busted when it turned out to be untrue. most recently told the school counselor that she felt like killing herself but not really doing it. was hospitalized for 7 days then 4 weeks of intensive outpatient and is still EXACTLY THE SAME. until she wants to change and makes the effort to change, we are at a loss. she will prob end up just like her bm.