If Only We Had Known

Nefertiti and the "barf bowl"

Consider this a public service announcement.  It's something I wish I had known about much sooner.  Abdominal migraines.

Early signs that completely escaped me were the fact that Debbie's tummy aches were never contagious.  We would keep her from friends in case she had some sort of bug, but even her siblings would never "catch" her vomiting episodes.

The fact that Debbie would pretend her new baby doll, Nefertiti, was barfing should have been a warning that she had spent way too many days suffering with belly pain.

Looking back I remember warning people that Debbie needed to wear a hat outdoors because she tended to get "heat exhaustion."  Now I suspect that those times she would come in from a sunny outing with pale clammy skin, sleepiness, stomach cramps, and vomiting - were actually early signs of abdominal migraines.

The key is that she would want to lie down in a cool dark room, the same as a migraine headache sufferer.  I should have caught that.

Now we know that she is susceptible to these bouts of illness, and finally we have a label for them.  Labels are good.  They help us find remedies.  The best thing we have found to stop an attack before it lasts the full 48-72 hours is an injection of Dramamine.  Now that Debbie is older, she can tell us as soon as she suspects she having an episode, and we can give her a dramamine pill or some Cramplex, which sometimes can help her avoid a full-blown attack.

If only we had known what these bouts were, we could have gotten Debbie help sooner.  It took all these years before discovering the triggers for her abdominal migraines.  She hasn't had a really bad attack since we started avoiding bacon, pepperoni, ham, and hot dogs.  Maybe now that she is turning 14 in a few weeks, she will have outgrown abdominal migraines.

I just pray they don't turn into regular migraine headaches like the website suggests.

Here are some more links a reader just sent me.  Thanks, Jim!  It's interesting that Debbie has had no major episodes since she started taking Magnesium supplements, which one of the sites recommended.  Now I'm pursuing the coQ10 for further prevention.
 
http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/symptoms-of-abdominal-migraine/
http://www.relieve-migraine-headache.com/abdominal-migraine.html
http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/cyclic-vomiting-syndrome-migraine-and-coq10/
http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/mommy-i-have-a-tummy-ache/
http://headacheandmigrainenews.com/fight-migraine-be-nice-to-your-mitochondria/