N's headaches

N was kicking the cupboards and the floor again Friday morning and screaming his head hurt too much to go to school. I called him in sick at school and got him another doctor's appointment. This is the third headache appointment we've had.

At the first doctor's appointment, the doctor (N's normal doctor) warned us it is very hard to figure out why kids have headaches. He wanted us to try feeding N a complex snack every couple hours in case it was a blood sugar thing. The second appointment (two Friday's ago) with the nurse practitioner a different route was tried. She thought it might be an allergy thing and prescribed him Zyrtec. This time we saw a different doctor at the practice we use (when you are sick and want an immediate appointment, you take whatever doctor you can get--they're all great doctors). He thinks it might be migraines (something the first doctor suggested as a possibility, but not where we'd start). Anyway, he's prescribed something called periactin, which is an antihistamine that has been used with success to treat migraines in children. Also, he's arranged for N to get a CT scan on Tuesday to confirm the problem isn't something serious like a brain tumor. He also told me to try Excedrin (over-the-counter) for N's headaches.

It seems like N does better with the Excedrin. It's hard to say about the periactin. I'm trying to keep N's use of Excedrin down because it contains caffeine (and aspirin and acetaminophen). I don't want N getting a caffeine addiction such that he gets a headache when he misses or delays his dose of caffeine. His dad is a big coffee and cola drinker, and if he misses it, he gets quite a headache (and loads up on Excedrin).

Anyway, N is scared about the upcoming CT scan because he's afraid it will find something. I'm a little worried except that Mr. K spends most of his life with a headache so it's not too surprising, I guess, that N might have inherited a tendency for headaches from his dad. Brain tumors are rare in children.

The bright side about juvenile migraines is that they often go away at puberty.