How do I begin helping my daughter?

By tk Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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Hello, this is my first SharePost. My nine year old daughter had a very severe headache (they called it a migraine) yesterday. As soon as I entered her school I could her screaming in pain. She was treated through an IV with something to calm her stomach and a pain killer. After a bought of car sickness and several hours of sleep she was fine except for the lingering effects of the medicine. Today her head only hurts when she laughs or coughs. I was told that we need to wait and see if it happens again and, if so, then we will move on to a CT scan. Is this normal protocol or should I be asking more questions of her doctor?

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Tami

12/18/07 3:55pm

My boyfriend's daughter also gets migraines, when she was your daughter's age they would come on the way you describe and she was treated at the hospital the same way you described your daughter's treatment.

When it happened the second or third time they did do a CT scan. This seems to be the normal protocol for children with headaches. They want to rule out all possibilities. Don't be overly alarmed or afraid of this, it seems to be the normal course of treatment.

To date, my stepdaughter still gets headaches but nowhere near the level or frequency she did at that age.

12/18/07 7:24pm

Thanks for the info!! I am trying not to be overprotective but my daughter is a really tough kid and this just walloped her.

Nancy Harris Bonk, Health Guide

12/19/07 8:39pm

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

How awful for your daughter. The first step may be to see her regular doctor for a checkup if she hasn't had one lately to rule out other conditions. You can then discuss her doctors approach treating children with Migraines (if that is what this is) and where to go from here. If you are not comfortable with those answers, we can help you with that.

You may want to start keeping a Migraine diary to see if a Migraine attack can be attributed to any triggers. Triggers don't cause a Migraine, but can make us more susceptible to a Migraine attack. Let's say your daughter doesn't go to bed at her regular time one night and wakes the next moringing very early. Her sleep schedule has been interrupted. This can be a Migraine trigger. We found out that chocolate, dehydration (a big one for some kids) and sleep pattern disruptions can all trigger a Migraine attack for our 12 year old son. So keeping a Migraine diary really helped figure this out for us. Click HERE for information on Migraine Triggers.

Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.

We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information on the main page of our site, http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,

Nancy Bonk
MyMigraineConnection.com Expert

PS: If you receive this message from more than one of us, please excuse the overlap. Thanks!

MyHeadHurts

1/ 5/08 4:35pm

She needs to see a neurologist. Stat.

It is Technically proper protocol. Technically. But ask yourself this---do you think its normal for a 9 year old girl to be in that much pain? The human body triggers neurons to stimulate pain when something is wrong--if she was screaming that much n she needed pain medication n it still hurts when she laughs or coughs she definately needs a follow up.

Also --was a spinal tap done??

How do I begin helping my daughter?

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