Headaches

[PurpleAngel]

About a year ago Kater started complaining about headaches. She would come home from school, want to lay down and sleep. I would give her Tylenol and within 10 minutes she would throw up. Not sure if from the medicine or from the headache. She would sleep for a couple hours, wake up and tell me she felt better. I kept track of them, like the Dr. said. She also told me that they sounded like migraines, but if that is what they were then the meds she takes for her seizures would cover the headaches as well.

She went for the last 4 months without any compliants...until Sunday. Last night she came home from school and laid on the couch and fell asleep. I made supper and she said she felt too bad to eat. Was going to give her some Ibuprofen, but she said she felt like throwing up so I waited. In the meantime I called the nurses line since it was after hours. The nurse asked me if the headaches are related to the epilepsy or something else. *Bad Mom moment* I told her I have no clue, and explained exactly what her Dr. had told me. I am going to call her Ped. today, since she is in town, and see what she thinks. Kater has an appt in February with her Neuro at the Children's Hospital, so maybe she can use that time to do more tests or whatever she feels can be done.

 

[skillefer]

Sorry to hear that Kate wasn't feeling well yesterday. Hope she's feeling better today. You might want to ask her today, if she's feeling ok, what she ate and drank yesterday. Oh...and if she only gets the headaches at school, you might want to call and ask what kind of light bulbs they use.

 

[RobinN]

Headaches are difinitely a part of a seizure disorder. I seem to remember she is 7, is that right?
I have to say this is how I feel when I have a full blown migraine. I always feel better after throwing up. There is certainly something connected between the gut and the brain.
They say there are similar chemicals in the two. If you google Brain , Gut you will find some interesting research on this.
I have been helped by taking magnesium. I have controlled my headaches for two years so far.
How is Kate's diet? Could there be any food allergies? Anything going on at school that is giving her considerable stress?
I hope she is feeling better.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Thanks!! I am waiting for a call from her Dr. Could be all day...

Yeah she is 7, will be 8 in February. Her diet isn't the best. She is very choosy about what she will eat. I make her eat three bites of meat at the meals that I can control. Otherwise she loves rice, potaotes and stuff like that. She will eat corn and carrots if they are cut into disks.

I am not aware of any food allergies, although I had some as a child. I was allergic to chocolate, citrus, tomatoes and peanut butter when I was younger. I don't have any problems now.

I think school is going okay. She claims not to have any friends, but from what I can tell it is simple 2 nd grade stuff. The teacher isn't much help...the teachers have been without a contract for 6 months and have decided that they wil only do what is required of them and nothing beyond, which in their minds means communicating with parents.

 

[RobinN]

Don't you just love the educational system. Gotta love those teachers. Such victims don't you think? I worked in the field and I don't have much sympathy.

Since she is so young, why don't you really make an effort to check out diets or as I like to call them, a nutritional plan that will support brain function. I have learned more about this through other neuro sites. Corn, rice, potatoes can all be allergens to some. Corn is one of the 4 foods that is the highest. You might try to find a copy of a book that is out of print right now, called Children with Starving Brains. I have yet to read it but it is highly recommended. Also, even though it is a tough diet to follow you might take a look at Stan Kurtz's website. He is a proponent of one for chronic illness.
Here is the link: http://stankurtz.com/biomedical/diet-autism-adhd-chronic-illness.html
Above all else, it appears to be a truly healthy way to approach nutrition. His son Ethan was recovered from Autism, and there is something to be said about how nutrition is directly connected to brain function. IMO (also supported by fact).

I know she is young, but is she also showing signs of hormonal changes in any way?
With all the hormones being pumped into the food, it is common for many girls to develop very young these days. You might consider that this is triggering the headaches too.

For a while I was getting 3-4 a week when I was a teen.

 

[Nancy]

I'm so very MUCH older than Kater it's very doubtful that there's any thing in common here.... I was 46 and had a total hysterectomy when I developed epilepsy. I did not know I was having cp's (I did not even know such a thing existed and did not know adults ever developed epilepsy) and had never had a bad headache.
Then I was having these AWFUL sick headaches ... just a grinding pain about the size of a nickle in my left temple. Hideous pain. It sure made me sick enough to be scared but I threw up only 2 or 3 times and I KNEW it could NOT be a "migraine" because what I read about migraines talked about the visual trouble and I didn't have that.

What I'm trying to say is --for me migraine and epilepsy arrived tight together.
I'm wishing the best, much better, for Kater.

 

[RobinN]

Nancy - I have never had visual trouble with my migraines. I did have light sensitivity. It always caused great pain to go out into the sunlight or a bright light in the room. But none of the other strange visual stuff. This went on for 30 yrs

 

[wonderdogs]

I started getting headaches when is was 11-12 years old wich was 15 years pre-epilepsy. They were diagnosed as tension headaches, stress/anxiety related. They were made worse, but not usually caused by light, sound, and smell. I usually had to go home, shower to get any lotion or hair product smell off me, take Ibuprofin and go to sleep in a DARK quiet room. I remember one horrible time I came home from school with a doosey and there were roofers at the house next door. Their banging was miserable! They occured seldom enough that we never did any further diagnostic testing and my mom would just excuse me from school. They increased in frequency around the age of 20 and I determined my job was making me miserable so I found a new one. I think the last bad one I had was about 4 years ago.

 

[Nancy]

Robin - MOST of the usual visual things don't bother me either. Sound? Most sound just makes me crazy with pain.
Our (well, it used to be "our".... now it's just my husband's) little country church used to be very precious and very important. Then it decided that LOUD music would be attractive to young people so it got speaker systems that make the lights sway and .......

Oh well ...... I've tried all manner of ear plugs and things like that. Nothing helps and nothing prevents the painful headaches so I haven't been there for over 3 years. Breaks my heart.

I haven't been in a shopping center (canned music too loud) for over 7 years. I can't go in most restaurants .... yadda yadda.

 

[brain]

I would be called from School. Everything
from sound to lights bothered me, and like
you posted, I would throw up. They ruled me
as having some sort of a virus. But Aspirin
made it worse, then Tylenol came along and
it was like an insult! The weirdest thing was
(now we didn't have air conditioning back
then) I would be icy cold! But once I got home
I would be off to sleep.

Then when I became married; it grew worse
with both Migraines and Epilepsy together
with occasional temporary blindness and/or
deafness where Helen Keller method would
have to be used to communicate with me
and it was scary. I was then labeled as
Migralepsy.

My Neurologist worked closely with me; and
learning that food was provoking the Migraines
and ran tests at the Hospital, and while I did
not drink, even Red Wine - a known Migraine
provocation, he had ordered that up, and I
didn't even know how to drink this stuff, and
this was one time I wanted to 'kill the Neuro'
*laughs* - My Gosh! MSG, Alcohol, Nuts, etc
I was all allergic to and were migraine provokers.
(There goes my favorite peanut butter and
'nanner sandwich)



Once those were eliminated, then he went on
to look for other Migraine provocations, and
fluorescent lights were provocations of BOTH
Migraines and Epileptic seizures. There were no
escaping those, especially when they were
flickering or backfiring due to bad ballasts and
while I had a log / journal, it was noticed that
they caused me to throw up, become incoherent,
disorientated, confused, in other words - out of
sync.

Then along came the computers; because of
the flicker rate, but I was one of those lucky ones
who had the US Gov surplus IBM Color, dual modem
with dual drive on 5.25 disc (floppies) with DOT
Matrix Printer while everyone else was on mostly
monochromatic; so when the Vocational Rehab.
Administrator & Counselor tried to place me into
employment, it was exceptionally difficult for this
little geek to go from color to mono. The Monos
were causing all kinds of problems - but if I
worked by the window (natural light) where I
could shift my eyes to look outside a lot, it was
not so bad, but it wasn't possible. They tried
putting lamps, removing the overhead fluorescent
lights, and it just did not work. Even with the
screen guard (anti-glare). One guy figured, well
"Let's try it with 2 Anti-polarized screens" (anti-
glare). That wasn't the issue, it was the flicker
rate after a prolonged period of time that was
provoking the problems.

Same thing with the Word Processor, while a
normal human eye cannot see it, I can: I can see
those fine horizontal lines that runs through the
screen; and no matter what adjustments I did,
they were there, screen or not. I could see them.
People can see them on television if a camera,
especially on the news if they try to take a photo
of a computer, you'll see it - that's pretty much
what I was seeing basically, only in black and
white. Adjusting the contrast, everything did no
good, I could still see it and it was making me
SICK! They (Vocational Rehab) took me to a
Specialist to get special glasses, to see if it would
eliminate this issue: NOPE!

*sigh*

Migraines and Seizures - Migralepsy.

As soon as I was away from them and recuperated
from it all, the hunt was down to try to find some-
thing else for me to do. But it was becoming nearly
impossible; the Doctors were right way back when
I was in School, I would never be able to work.

Stress even provoked seizures, one of my major
problems is, once I start, I just do not know when
to stop until the project is completed. I am not
a "clock watcher", I am not happy until the
project is done. I actually get irritated if some-
thing gets left incomplete and I have to wait until
tomorrow to finish it, unless it's a long course
project, then I have a day by day goal. I'm known
to burn midnight oil and ignoring everyone that
tells me "Time to quit!" - not for me it isn't.

I'm a workaholic. My Granddad used to call me a
"work horse".

So it's downright frustrating when you have
Migraines and Epilepsy that's being barricades.

Migraines are things of the past now for me,
they do pop up once in a blue moon, but it's
usually due to 'food related' episode - like
someone using food that I'm allergic to and
lying about it (had it happen before, people
have LIED and DENIED using such) - and I
ended up in the ER in the Hospital!

It's mostly all Epilepsy now.

 

[Bee91]

Ever since I got the two concussions (which we think also caused my epilepsy) I have had migraines. Last year, I would have to go home from school almost every day. No OTC med would work. Finally we decided to go see a neuro, but before we could do that, I had my first grand mal seizure. So of course, the neuros appt was moved up...

I was put on Topamax for both seizures and migraines. It has helped very well for both. I rarely have migraines at all now...

 

[PurpleAngel]

The Dr. finally called back yesterday morning. A full 24 hours after I called. Good thing she wasn't dying huh? According to the nurse the headaches are part of the virus that is going around. Okay. She doesn't have anything else going on but the headaches. She did throw up but she always does when she has a headache. So I am supposed to give her ibuprofen every 6 hours for the next three days, and if she isn't better call back. So I guess I will do what I was told and hope she feels better.

I am going to be doing a TON of question asking at her next appt. I want some decent answers instead of what I have been getting.

 

[RobinN]

My kids have had virus' that have begun with a terrible headaches. I wouldn't rule it out.

I just came across something also to consider in regards to headaches...
Sometimes the capsule that your meds come in, or your supplements come in is made from gelatin. This is typically made from

gelatin is partially hydrolysed animal protein; (partially) hydrolysed vegetable protein (PHVP)

and can cause a reaction. Especially for those that are sensitive to MSG products.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10792367?dopt=Abstract

 

[Bernard]

There are several threads here on the subject of headaches and migranes. I'll link to one and it contains links to the others:

Oxygen therapy for headaches