Yesterday, I had to take my little Joanna to a neurologist.  Now, I don’t know about you, but to me, a neurologist sounds scary serious.  You may be wondering how my sweet, little troublemaker ended up at a neurologist.  It’s an understandable question.

She gets headaches.  Being the caring, sensitive mother that I am, when she would complain about a headache, I would give her some Motrin and tell her to go lie down until she stopped complaining felt better.

About a month ago, my typical treatment plan didn’t work.  She started screaming and crying that her head hurt, asking me to please make it stop.  I’ll admit it, I got scared.  I had no idea what might be causing it, but she doesn’t scream and cry about things hurting, so I panicked.  And rushed her to the doctor.  The doctor diagnosed her as having a mother who is a drama queen (the Motrin had kicked in by the time we saw the doctor so Joanna was feeling better) but when the doctor found out that Joanna gets headaches on a regular basis, we had to go see a neurologist.

Joanna didn’t want to go.  Somehow, she became convinced that the doctor was going to stick a needle into her brain (I am not above using that as a threat, but I can’t take credit.  I didn’t think of it).  I explained that neurologists are more talking and looking doctors.  You can’t examine someone’s brain.  But she was still panicked.

When we finally got into the doctor’s office, everything was fine.  Joanna passed her neurological exam with flying colors (not that I expected anything different).  She gets migraines.  This wasn’t a huge surprise to me.  I get migraines and my mom got them.  One thing that was surprising is that she apparently also suffers from something called cyclical vomiting.  In non-medical terms, it means you throw up for no reason.  When I used to have it growing up, we called it a sensitive stomach.

Of course, when I was growing up, I took advantage of it.  I would use it as an excuse to miss school.  Oops, I threw up last night, I can’t go to school.  Joanna is too little to think of that and now that we know what is causing the vomiting, she can’t use it when she gets sneakier older.

When I posted about the migraines on Facebook, I received a number of questions.  The first was about age.  Yes, children can get migraines.  They start as young as age 5.  That was when Joanna started her headaches.  Yes, she did have the headaches for more than a year before we even mentioned them to the doctor (where is my mother of the year award).  I just can’t get too upset about headaches, I used to get them all the time and I turned out OK.

Another question was about treatment of migraines in children.  Like anything, treatment depends on the situation.  In a case like Joanna’s, we will just treat the headaches as they occur.  We will use Motrin for as long as it works.  If the headaches become more frequent or if Motrin stops working, a doctor may use the existing migraine medications off label.  Off label means using an FDA-approved medication for something not approved by the FDA (it sounds worse than it is).  Neurologists will use medications like Imitrex with kids, calculating the dose, based on the child’s size.

We now have a headache calendar we have to track (because I am so good with paperwork).  If I know my cooperative little Joanna, she will not have another headache for the length of the calendar.  As soon as she is done keeping the calendar, they will come fast and furious.  I guess it is better for me to know how often she gets the headaches rather than just guessing.

My baby will be just fine.  I know I may not have enough sympathy for the headaches (since I get them all the time), but I am definitely sympathetic with the vomiting (I hate to throw up).  While I was sure she was suffering from migraines, there is something frightening about taking a six year old to a neurologist.  I think it is just the name neurologist.  I think they should change the name to headache lady.  It’s not nearly as scary.