Teen with Migraines
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Anonymous
| Does anyone else has a teen that suffers from very bad migraines? My almost 15 year old son was dx 3 years ago. All tests negative and we have never been able to pinpoint a trigger. It breaks my heart to see him suffer and has caused him some depression. He just wants to be normal! He’s got a great therapist and we decided to try daily preventative meds this week to see if we can get them under control . Anyone been in a similar situation? |
Anonymous
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I'm so sorry he's going through this! I just wanted to say daily preventive meds were absolutely life changing for me (started in 20s, not teen). Even just the last couple years they've improved. Plus some of the newer triptans are effective really fast if he takes them right at the start of any indication of a migraine. Please don't despair, migraines suck but there's so much you can try to help mitigate them for him. Feel free to ask me any specifics.
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Anonymous
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Thank you for taking him for meds. They were also life changing for me and I didn’t get on them until I was an adult. It took a while to find the right medicine and dosage so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work right away.
As for triggers and what helps or makes it worse, you just need to see over time. Some of the textbook trigger items make it worse for me (bananas) but some actually help me (coffee). Everyone is different. |
Anonymous
| I had them that often at that age. So many preventatives. New ones are regularly being released. Do keep trying to find on that works. |
Anonymous
| How often does he have them? |
Anonymous
We all have different triggers. Mine, not wearing my prescribed glasses. My aunt, sugar. My friend, chocolate. My other friends swears by water, staying super hydrated helps her alleviate them. For all of us above, "tests" were always negative, we all just had to find our personal triggers. Daily meds will help him but at some point as he gets older and starts listening to his body he will learn of his personal triggers. |
Anonymous
For me, a big one is reading or working looking straight down at my desk. I need a book stand to keep my work in front of my eyes, otherwise it puts pressure on something on the back of my neck and I get a migraine. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover this until I was an adult, after muddling through high school, college, and grad school doing exactly that every day. For about 20 years, I was told I had sinus headaches (or “stress,” depending on how misogynistic the doctor was. Well, yes, I was stressed. Because I pretty much ALWAYS had a freaking headache.). At that point, not much was known about chronic migraines, and because I managed to function through one or two headaches a week, often lasting 2 or 3 days, nobody ever considered they might be migraines. They just weren’t “bad” enough, because I wasn’t vomiting or missing school. But if I missed school every time I had a headache, I’d never have made it out of middle school. But a combo of low-dose gabapentin and some OTC supplements, and Ubrelvy for the breakthrough headaches (triptans made me feel terrible, almost worse than the headaches), and I’m totally fine most of the time now. There are probably even better preventative meds out now, but gabapentin works for me with no side effects, and my neurologist likes it because there are very few interactions with any other meds I might need to take in the future. |
Anonymous
I agree with this. Sumatriptan completely changed my relationship with migraines. It used to completely ruin my day with massive headache, nausea, etc. Now I take the Sumatriptan and I am basically fine within 30-60 minutes. |
Anonymous
I have severe migraine so. No triggers. You may, others don’t. |
Anonymous
| OP are your son's migraines with auras or without? |
Anonymous
That is one of the first prescribed as it’s cheap, works for a select few and insurances will approve it. Many of the new medications are thousands a month and insurances require you to try a few off label first. But some of the new medications are not approved in teens yet. |
Anonymous
You might be very stressed...that's a trigger. |
Anonymous
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When you say "all tests" I assume you mean CT Scans and MRIs?
So if all the things that those would show have been ruled out (i.e. hydrocephalus, etc.) - I'd look at food triggers, stress, and also teeth grinding at night. Have him (and this is hard for a teen, especially a teen with exec functioning issues, which yours may or may not have) keep a diary of what he ate/how he was feeling the day the migraine was triggered and see if you can find a pattern. Different food allergies, hay fever, definitely teeth grinding or clenching (which can be exacerbated by stress) - can cause migraines. |
Anonymous
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Ours aren’t chronic but result is 3-4 a year of an intense migraine, vision problems, need to lay down indark room and then an hour later it’s just intense headache pain for the day.
Our triggers were personal stress - never school or competition stress- and sometimes bright lights or Sun through trees on the bus and the light throbbing would just never go away for a hour plus develop a headache. Pls find a specialist if more severe. And as my brother s d myself had same thing and mostly outgrew them, we trusted our child even when 5 yo when she described these headaches and would out herself to bed after school. |
Anonymous
Nope, not stressed. |