A case of the megrims

George Cruikshank's "The Headache" depicting the torments inflicted by the demons of colic, depression, jealousy, and indigestion.
George Cruikshank's "The Headache" depicting the torments inflicted by the demons of colic, depression, jealousy, and indigestion.
To have a case of the megrims was to have a headache. Often from the descriptions in diaries, these may have been migraine attacks or at the very least serious tension headaches. Darkened rooms, an absence of sound, relief brought on by a cool, damp cloth on one’s forehead or the back of one’s neck — these symptoms are all too familiar by today’s standards and even in my own house lately.

I wish I was writing about this in only a Regency Era research mode. However, for the past month, our son has been knocked down by a string of recurring headaches. Using a 0-5 scale, where 0 is none, and 4 is nauseous and 5 is throwing up, we’re talking he’s had a 4 or 5 level headache on 19 days of the last 30. This also happened last spring as well, so we suspect there might be some seasonal allergy involved making him more susceptible beyond just what is brought on by bright sunlight, loud noise and skipping meals. The boy’s head will hurt to the point where he’ll be sick from the pain and he gets horrible dark circles under his eyes.

It was interesting to see the change in the weather (from always clear and sunny SoCal to overcast and raining on Sunday) also brought a change to how he felt. On Friday evening, it was like someone flipped a switch in his personality. I hadn’t realized just how suppressed his usual sunny disposition had been for the past three weeks. He was suddenly smiling and silly and himself again. Unfortunately, as the weather system passed, so did the brief respite as the switch flipped back and he’s become a zombie again.

He has a CAT scan scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. We’re just hoping for an explanation of why he’s affected this way and a way to minimize the restrictions this places on his activities, like going to school.

6 thoughts on “A case of the megrims”

  1. Best of luck tomorrow – I’ll try to find wifi while we’re out and about in hopes you send out good news.

  3. Nothing exciting to report after today’s scan. We probably won’t hear back from the pediatrician until Monday about it, but we didn’t get any alarming phrases while we were in there. Pretty amazing how on schedule and in and out the whole thing was.

  4. good, I was going to say I hope he was all right. Sounds like it’s at least tentative good news.

  5. Still no word. Put in a call to the pediatrician’s office this morning to check if they’ve gotten the results back yet. *twiddle*

  6. I called the doctor and made an appt this morning because things really haven’t changed and I figured if both DH and I went in, they’d know we were concerned and at the very least could call down to find why they didn’t have our results yet.

    So, the dr walks in and says, “Oh hey, you were on my list of people to call today anyway!” Good, but umm.. FIX him.

    So the CAT scan came back completely negative for any brain problems. Yay, for that good news!

    However, what they did find was a sinus infection in one of those deep sinuses, hence the ongoing pain and misery and pain not in the classic “sinus infection location”. She referred us to an allergist and gave us a couple of prescriptions for an antibiotic and a nasal steroid and told us to get OTC Zirtec and Afrin to help with the allergy symptoms. (Did I say it wasn’t stress? *ahem*) So, I have to go back and pick those up in a bit, but this is progress.

    I can also tell the weather’s changing as he’s feeling a bit better today. He’s not happy because that means he has to work on his mountain of homework. Oh well, just in time, next week’s Spring Break! 😛

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