Indiscretion: Callie Douglas - Book Four

Chapter Fifteen

I was a little late taking my last patient of the day. By the time the officers had left, my next patient had been waiting for me for ten minutes. I sighed. While I am typically late for, well, everything in my life, I always try to be on time for my patients.

"I'm sorry I'm late today. We had a little incident."

"I could tell. I'm sure it's not every day that you have the police called out to the office."

"No, thankfully not. By the way, I'm Dr. Callie Douglas", I said, shaking her hand.

"Hi. I'm Sherry Harmon."

"It's nice to meet you, Sherry. How may I help you?"

"I just need someone to talk to."

"What's going on?"

"I don't know what to do. My son's getting migraines all the time, and when I say all the time, I mean every day for many hours out of the day. He's missing a lot of school and my husband and I are burning all our sick time staying home to look after him."

"Has he been to see a doctor?"

"Yes. I don't think he knows what's wrong."

"How old is your son?"

"He's ten."

"How are you treating the headaches?"

"I usually give him ibuprofen or acetaminophen for the pain. Other than that, I close all the blinds and reduce the noise in the house."

"He's light and sound sensitive?"

"Yes, he is."

"How's he sleeping?"

"Not very well, since he's always in pain."

"Has he been to see a neurologist?"

"No, he hasn't."

"That would be a good idea. There are typically two reasons why a child is experiencing migraines, and the two reasons often overlap. The first is physical. There may be a reason that the headaches are coming on, like allergies, or he may have a tendency towards migraines and now that he is getting older they may just be happening."

"That can happen? It could just be a response to getting older?"

"Sometimes that's the reason why. They can mysteriously show up and mysteriously disappear again a while later. Whatever the cause, a neurologist would be able to investigate the reasons behind the migraines. He or she would be able to prescribe medication that would address the headaches and lessen or even get rid of them all together. When you choose a neurologist to go to, choose one that specializes in pediatrics."

"I worry that there's a terrible underlying cause. I have read about children who have brain cancer and it tears me apart to think that something like that could be the underlying reason."

"There are all sorts of reasons. Yes, one of them could be because of a tumour, but there are many, many more causes of headaches and you need a neurologist to investigate those reasons with you."

"What happens if the neurologist can't find anything wrong either?"

"They will still be able to prescribe a medication to lessen or eliminate the headaches. However, there is another reason why children typically get migraines and that is an emotional one. If the child is particularly anxious or depressed, this can result in migraines."

"It's hard to tell if my son is anxious or depressed. He holds his emotions pretty close to his chest."

"The two can overlap as well. If a child has a history of getting migraines, they will associate the onset of a headache with intense pain. In anticipation of that pain, they will tense their muscles. The tensing of their muscles will make the pain worse. This means that the next time they have a headache they will anticipate greater pain, which will result in greater tension in their muscles, which will result in greater pain. In many ways, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."