View Full Version : darn headaches
I am starting to get really pissed off, sorry folks. My son has had migraines for 2 years now. We have been through so much starting about a year ago (I can trace my kids ALL falling apart to me putting the house on the market and dad moving) and it has taken extreme work to get some progress on the anxiety/depression issues so that he can attend school better. And today he has a killer, please turn off the lights, don't make noise kind of migraine. I just don't understand (although I know from others with migraines) why there is no medicine that really really works to just stop this somewhere in its course. I am looking at a kid at 14 who is missing school on a regular basis and we can't help him. His migraine meds make him queasy, the queasy meds give him a headache, we just did regular advil and caffeine this morning but it will take time.
I am so sorry that he has to deal with this painful condition at such a young age. It's hard to see your children suffer. Poor kid.
My mother had migraine headaches and I am so glad that I didn't inherit that malady. That and her exema-- I don't have.
My younger daughter has migraines - I know the earlier she treats it, the easier it is to treat. She has had to work at not ignoring symptoms until it's a full blown migraine, but it's helped her manage it.
Have you tried to determine whether he has any food triggers? My mom has migraines and can count on getting one if she consumes MSG, aspartame, grapes in any form, and various other things.
How old is your son Zoe? I have always heard that if girls have them, they usually keep them, but boys grow out of them. I hope that's true for your son.
My son has never been checked by a doctor for his, but I'm pretty sure they are a migraine variant. He gets a little headache, but gets incredibly nauseous. He can't move, he's so nauseous. It would happen on vacations and when he was under stress at school. They were pretty common during puberty.
What works for him is to take 2 Advil, along with something like dramamine and sleep for a couple hours. When he wakes up, its usually gone.
I have migraines, and they were horrible during perimenopause. Fortunately, Maxalt worked for me to abort the migraine, but it would do a number on my muscles.
I discovered that 2 Exedrin started working for me after I gave up Fioricet. But I couldn't have caffeine in any drinks or food for it to work on the migraine.
Does your son drink much caffeine? If so, I would stop that, and only use it for headaches (so it would tend to work better). Seems like caffeine works for some people, but not others.
Weather can also play a big part in migraines.
I have migraines the only thing that helps me is going to sleep,making the bedroom totally dark some times I put a blanket in front of the window,If I'm lucky and fall asleep that I wake up without the migraine.if i don't fall asleep it some times stayes for 2 or 3 days.
Anita
My stepson has atypical migraines - the first one exactly mimicked stroke symptoms. He as riding the bus home and fell asleep. When he woke up, he could't read, half his face & his arm on that side were numb, and he couldn't talk. He texted his Papa - it was terrifying. We met the bus and rushed him to ER. He's had aura symptoms since then, and we get meds into him ASAP, then he sleeps and it's abated. His Papa has to get meds within 10 minutes of starting symptoms or he's down for at least 2 days. Gosh, this was no help - just more terrible stories. Have you consulted an acupuncturist?
I agree Redfox, you just have to get those meds in at the first sign of a migraine.
This is what helped me: Pain Diary and Pain Calendar. I printed off a free year-at-a-glance calendar, and I colour in the boxes on days I have headaches. I use a code: blue for up to a 6, which is the highest level at which I can cope. Red is 7 and 8 on my pain scale; even with medication, I can't cope - can't go to work or school, say. Purple for 9, black for 10. This really helps to show up any patterns. The pain diary is a page on which you record each day whether you ate something problematic, changes in weather, fights with your family, and other stressors, as well as graphing the pain at 3 hour intervals. I heavily modified the one I got from the pain clinic, and will send you a template if you email me. I also learnt biofeedback techniques.
Awareness is key. The more meticulously the records are kept, the more quickly headache catalysts are identified. I'm 51, and have been having stupendous migraines since I was 5 or thereabouts. Yet it's only a year ago that I finally caught on that nuts give me headaches! The best book I've found is "Managing Your Migraines" by Susan L. Burks. I'd suggest giving him magnesium, B2, and B12.
Measurable physical changes take place in the brain 72 hours before the headache strikes. These are warnings for me: increased urination - which depletes magnesium, which in turn sets off another chain reaction; carb cravings; salt cravings; general feeling of being just a tad spaced-out; pixellation of vision.
On a physical level, the things that help me: water with the juice of half a lemon. I can sip at that and it helps for the nausea. For the pain, a hot wet cloth across the head; this needs a kind person, a bowl, two cloths, and an electric (no-whistling) kettle. The touch of the hot wet cloth gives a couple of moments of complete relief; if the cloth is frequently renewed, the taut muscles relax, sometimes with an audible crack as the neck vertebrae let go.
On an emotional level - and I'm NOT saying you're doing this: it helps if the people who live with the migraineur accept that the headaches are real, the sufferer is not knowingly doing something to bring them on, the sufferer is NOT practicing escapism, and the sufferer truly WANTS to be free of the pain and debilitation. It takes about 3 days to recover from a headache. If one is made to feel guilty and ashamed of the headaches, that piles on top of the pain, and builds fear of having another headache - which fear is already pretty intense!
A couple more things: when I'm down with a migraine, my feet and hands become so cold that they actually hurt. A hot water bottle is very comforting. The only food I can keep down is hot chicken broth; it's soothing to the insides, especially after a bout of vomiting.
My son had awful migraines in his childhood and adolescence, and he outgrew them by his early twenties - so there's hope!!
I am sooo glad there is a good chance he can outgrow them.
We are aware of basic triggers like MSG and he doesn't have much caffeine so that is good. His last one was probably stress and we have a biofeedback DR working with him. I do believe the migraines but we also have school escapism so it gets complicated. It seems the day after a migraine he will have a lot of anxiety and not want to attend school. It get very dramatic, I excuse him for migraines but he has to get back to school quickly. We are starting a diary of migraines and the color coded idea is awesome. Also for related and other reasons we are going to to intensive family therapy. Maybe we can calm down the house stress level and make some difference.
My son, also had terrible migraines through adolesence and even today. What has helped him: He learned some of his food triggers: too much caffiene, sleep disturbance, bananas, chocolate and alcohol. He had the full blown kind with auras, etc. I ordered the book "Heal Your Headache", It is written by a physician -mostly dealing with finding triggers by elimination. In Med school, he could not affored to miss any days with these headaches (which stress also triggered, i.e. - med school) so he was put on a very mild daily dose of an anti-depressant as a preventative.
I can understand your son's anxiety and reluctance to go to school the day after a headache! It takes me about 3 days after a big one to regain any sense of normality. My tongue feels too big and too heavy, I feel shaky, I'm terrified of falling, all my muscles feel like ancient rubber bands, my mouth is dry and I still have trouble finding even common words. I end up saying "one of those wiry things, sort of bendy, used on paper" instead of "paperclip." This doesn't mean he shouldn't go to school, but his anxiety should be addressed and coping skills improved.
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