Yesterday morning Brittany was completely nonfunctional, as she had a mother of a migraine. I have been watching for this to happen more frequently, because for the past two years there has been a pattern where the frequency goes up around November, and the intensity increases around this time and from January through late March or so she's had more bad days than good days. Last year was a nightmare; she missed so much school that we used the home and hospital option for the entire second semester. It was absolutely miserable.
One thing that makes it so awful is that none of the prescriptions given for migraines really do anything for her. A couple have put a dent in the pain for the first couple of times she takes it, then don't work anymore. We did find some relief through living at the chiropractor's office 3 times a week when it was so bad, but she never got to a pain-free day.
Since then she's also been diagnosed as bipolar (not as bad as some who have it, but she definitely has cycles), and I've noticed than when she tends more towards the depressive side of it she has more headaches.
She's also had a sleep study where they noticed "a pattern of regular irregular heartbeats." That led to a 24-hour holter monitor study that showed the same thing and we now have an appt. with an arrhythmia specialist at Primary Children's Hospital on December 23. We've had a feeling for awhile that whatever is going on with her heart might be contributing to the head pain.
I took her to the chiropractor yesterday (we haven't been in quite awhile) and they found that her Atlas vertebrae was off to the side, so after a realignment she felt better. I'm glad she's better today, but I'm sad that my daughter is never pain-free. She made a comment to me last year that she doesn't ever remember her head NOT hurting. I feel kind of stupid for not knowing, but to her it was normal so she really never said much. How sad is that? My dream for her is to be able to know what it is like to live without pain. I can't imagine what it must be like for her; the best I can do is think of how I feel when I have a headache and then imagine jacking the intensity way up and think of the headache always being there. I'm grumpy enough when I have a headache; from where I'm standing she has a great attitude. She's developed a really fun sense of humor and really lives day to day as fully as she can.
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2 comments:
Heidi,
My heart aches. There is nothing worse than that kind of pain. I have them, my mom, my sister, several of my brothers and several of my children. Someone at the dentist office just this week told me of botox shots in the temples, just right on the forehead. They said that studies have shown this as an option for this kind of pain. It might be something that you might want to check into for Brittany.
Debbie H.
Oh yuck, poor girl. We should start making appointments at Primary's at the same time- we could totally have a party.
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