Question: Daughter missed school with Migraines all but 5 days in 6 weeks?
Answer:
Full Question:
I have a 15 year old Daughter who has suffered
from migraines for the last year and a half The last six weeks they have been so
bad she has been to school only five days She has been on Elavil, Topamax, and
currently Inderal So far none of the abortive medications have helped (Zomig,
Midrin, Frova, Relpax, Imitrex pill & injection) She has stomach pain and nausea
Has a hard time sleeping and has lost about eight pounds because she doesn't
feel like eating My heart breaks for my once very active Daughter can you please
help me? Kim.
Answer:
Dear Kim;
It's so hard to see your child in this situation. You have our sympathies. Now, if only there were one easy, standard answer.
Has she identified any of her triggers? If she has any avoidable triggers, trigger management would be an enormous help. A diary is a great tool for that:
Keeping
a Headache and Migraine Diary
One of the most helpful tools for you and your doctors is a Headache and
Migraine Diary. It’s useful to track triggers, the effectiveness of meds,
and patterns to your headache pain. There are many ways to do this, but for
the purpose of your doctor reviewing it, printed pages are usually
preferable to a bound journal. We have a diary ready for you to print our
download to use on your computer.
The main thing is to realize that there are so many preventives and combinations of preventives that it's virtually impossible to have tried them all:
Medications for Headache and Migraine Prevention
For those of us with frequent headaches or Migraine attacks, preventive
medications, dietary supplements, and even medical devices are often a good
option. There are over 100 medications that can be used and nearly endless
combinations of them. The list is ever-evolving, and will this one will be
updated regularly.
As far as the abortives are concerned, there are still more to be tried. You didn't mention Migranal or DHE, and there are still more triptans:
Triptans: Overview and Profiles
In 1992, the FDA approved the first of a class of medications that many
Migraineurs call "miracle drugs." That drug was sumatriptan (Imitrex®,
Imigran®), the first triptan. Here are both general information on triptans
and detailed profiles of each.
If she only went to school five days out of six weeks, how many days did she take abortives or pain medications? Did anyone explain that they can cause rebound headaches if taken more than two or three days a week?
Medication Overuse Headache: What's a person to do?
Unfortunately, it seems that any medication we take for headache or
Migraine relief has the potential to cause medication overuse headache if
used more than two or three days a week. We need to learn as much about it
as possible. Let’s take a look at what causes it, how to avoid it, and other
important issues.
How is her relationship with her doctor? Does the doctor explain about Migraine disease and the treatments? If she's not making progress with her current doctor, it may well be time to consider taking her to a Migraine specialist. If you need it, there's a link below to our directory of recommended specialists.
Good luck,
Teri Robert and John Claude Krusz
____________
To visit our directory of recommended specialists and clinics, click
HERE.
To visit our forums for an exchange of information and support, click HERE.
Published April 24, 2006
