Quote:
Originally Posted by pretdou
I posted last spring when I realized my daughter was in fact experiencing PCS for the second time, following a 10k run. She is fourteen.
She had been pretty much symptom free for three years prior and we had been mindful of the fact she is much more vulnerable to concussion due to her history.
After three months she was doing much, much better and we continued to take it easy over the summer.
Five days ago she came home with a splitting headache (8 out of 10) and although it is at about a 4 now, it remains. I believe she needs to stay home from school until it is gone. As hard as that is I am really, really concerned about what might happen if she returns to school prior to the headache resolving.
The headache came on while doing computer coding and timed typing tests. I will seek significant accomodation with the teacher as I believe this is not a safe situation for her. She did have one or two headaches that lasted the night prior to this, and they came on in this class.
We are doing lots with supplements and are going to try a type of biofeed back called Brainstate some have benefitted from. We will also take her for NUCCA chiropractic as I think her neck remains injured from gymnastics accident.
If anyone has further thoughts or suggestions please post. I really want to avoid migraine medications. I am going back through the posts again as I have learned so, so much from the site.
Wishing all of us well.
|
My good doctor (been through a few) talked about it like a graph with the line going up and down (that being symptoms) and that there is a line that we must try to go under at all times in order to heal. The more often you keep it on or under the line, the line will rise up. Doing timed tests is definately NOT the good thing to do.
As for her headaches, I'm 17 so I totally get the resistance to medications (tried that approach, only a quick fix). I've cut all sucralose, aspartame, stuff like that out of my diet, it helped a bit. I find even cane sugar (health food department) for my bad pop craving every once in a while, doesn't affect my head as much. Check out a nutrition feed on this website to see some of the stuff she should cut out of her diet. For excruciating pain, I have had a small glass of coca-cola, caffeine helps my headache, although others may argue and I've been told you should try to avoid caffeine. If she's home, try a cold compress or ice pack and have her rest in the dark with it on, I found it helped a bit.
I think a chiropractor is a great idea. Even if she does not have neck pain, I'd go. I had mad headaches every day (6 or 7/10 at least) and bad neck pain as well as cognitive stuff. I was fortunate to find a doc who does acupuncture, chiropractic, physiotherapy and cognitive therapy. Not only has he fixed my neck pain, but headaches lessened (less tight muscles in the neck and less stress from pain) but I can think clearer. Definately look into that. You can also try massage therapy if she does have tight neck muscles. A good doc will recommend you try a couple things in conjunction, as they work much better together.
Is she sleeping? If not, an herbalistic approach would be to take Melatonin. You can buy it anywhere in a drug store. Non- drowsy in the morning and it would help me fall asleep. MORE SLEEP EQUALS LESS HEADACHES
Hope some of that helps, and let your daughter know, she's not the only teen dealing with tough symptoms !