abdominal migraines

[Mary]

I have a 12 year old son that has been having upper right quartant pain with vomiting,nausea and he gets very hot and weak that we have to carry him.  He runs a low grade fever around 99 or 100.9.  We have had a hida scan, gallbladder ultrasound, scope to see if he had an ulcer, blood work and all came back normal except he is slight anemnic.  We seen a doctor a couple of weeks ago and need abdominal x-ray and he was constipation and we thought that was finally the end to the mystery cause he has this problem for 2 1/2 years.  He has missed alot of school and they call for me to pick him up this attacks wakes up doubled over at 2:00am and sometimes right before school and weekends.  He was seen my a Ped Gastro and he diagnois my Joseph with abdominal migraines which he doesn't have headaches and I have never heard of such and they prescribed Elavil 10mg before bed.  I am lost on what to do and you could give me more info on abdominal migraines I would appreciate it.  I have looked and found nothing.  Thanks
Mom worried

[julie572]

A related discussion, ANSWERS :) was started.

[Karen in Ohio]

My daughter who is now 13, has been suffering with abdominal pain, dizziness, naseua, and vomiting spells for over 3 years.One day she is fine the next, in pain and with in hrs. fine again. She too was originally diagnosed with constipation. We were told to give her fiber pills and tums.As I said it's been 3 years on and off. She has missed a ton of school this past year. The past 3 days has been very trying for her, so yesterday I took her to the ER at the Children's Hospital here. They mentioned abdominal migraines which we have never heard of, and suggested we seach help with a gastrologist. My grandmother, mother and myself suffer from migraines. I have found alot of info on the net, Thanks to all that have posted.

[patricia]

Well, what a shock,to hear of someone else suffering with this so called form of migrains ! I'm from the east coast,Canada.I am 38 yrs. old,and have suffered with "some kind of abdominal pain" at infantcy,so bad my mother said I would stop breathing .She would always manage to get me breathing again by giving me a little shake or patting me on the back.This went on for the next 5 yrs. The DR's.decided to do an exploratory! found nothing but removed my appendex anyway !! Still suffered same pain for next 2 yrs.Please continue to read ,sorry this seems to be a long one !But I'm sure may add some insite to what might be expected in the future .One day ,THE PAIN STOPPED,just like that,IN MY ABDOMIN!!!!!! Yes ,but started to develope in my arms and legs !
Down one side up the other .Would go away as quick as it came ,when it left .I used to get into a nice hot bath for a little relief.15 yrs. ago I lived in Edmonton,Alberta,Canada.As pain pills weren't working ,I decided to go to the Medical arts building ,there a Dr,(migrain specialist)diagnosed me with "Traveling Migrains "also said I was probably having infant abdominal migrains !!! These kinds of migrains start in one area ,will leave and start in another . When I returned to the east coast I told my Dr.about this ,and he said he'd never heard of it !!!  Anyway,I feel for Joseph,I understand what he feels ,and the only good "HOPE" I can offer is ,the frequantcy will subside ,I also have never had a migrain in my head YET !!Hope I never do ,I went from having one everyday till age 5,then about 3 out of 4wks a month,ages 6-12 yrs.Then once a month through into my 20"s Later 20's until today I only get them about 3-4 times a year!!!! And only in arms & legs still.Still just taking pain killers and trying to go right to sleep ,to sleep it off.He ,(DR.) asked if there was a history of migrains in my family as he believes they are hereditary! Yes my mother suffered them ,in her head for yrs.Well "worried mum" Hope this sheds some light for you and Joseph . I know I also loved getting a massage ,it really helped to relax me when I was in pain .So sorry you have this Joseph,I hope these nasty migrains leave you soon sweety. Mum,I know it so hard on your heart to see your son in pain ,but only the gentle touch of a mothers loving hands can be the relief when there is no other comfort. I still remember my mum holding me night after night ,and i'm the youngest of 9 children,how i must have taken up alot of precious time from the others .but I only remember feeling their concern FOR ME !! WOW I guess i was truly blessed ,Well i hope you recieve this letter .Sorry it was so long ,ha ha ha  God bless Joseph & family   Patty

[Eileen Endean]

Hello to you mothers who are baffled by your son and daughters vague pain in the upper right hand side of their stomac.  I am now 49 and have been plagued by this intermittant awfully debilitating pain under my right rib cage.  I cannot get out of bed, think, get comfortable and am engulfed by this HORRIBLE pain .  I do get migraines and have for the past 10 years.  More often I am getting these HORRIBLE pains for 4 weeks at a stretch without any releif.  I have had endoscopy, colonoscopy, cat scans, ultra sounds, bloood tests and liver scans.  No one can find out what this evasive pain is.  It is ruining my life. I have no quality of life anymore.  i can not work, take care of my house or even at times hold a conversation because of the HORRIBLE pain.  I have gone to a new doctor who suggested that this could be an abdominal migraine.  I am so frustrated because I cannot live like this any more.  I feel like I am going crazy. If you can help me please do I am desperate.  I live on extreme pain killers and the new doctor just gave me a new med. called Aciphex.  I took prevacid but it had no effect at all. This new med may be helping but I don't know exactly if it is.  Yesterday Oct. 13 I had another endoscopy and they took a biopsy of the stomac, and esophoges(?) and something else. I am desperate to find others with abdominal migraines for some advise or help. Please reply if you can.  Thank you for your time.
Eileen Endean
973-927-7564
New Jersey

[Eileen Endean]

Hello to you mothers who are baffled by your son and daughters vague pain in the upper right hand side of their stomac.  I am now 49 and have been plagued by this intermittant awfully debilitating pain under my right rib cage.  I cannot get out of bed, think, get comfortable and am engulfed by this HORRIBLE pain .  I do get migraines and have for the past 10 years.  More often I am getting these HORRIBLE pains for 4 weeks at a stretch without any releif.  I have had endoscopy, colonoscopy, cat scans, ultra sounds, bloood tests and liver scans.  No one can find out what this evasive pain is.  It is ruining my life. I have no quality of life anymore.  i can not work, take care of my house or even at times hold a conversation because of the HORRIBLE pain.  I have gone to a new doctor who suggested that this could be an abdominal migraine.  I am so frustrated because I cannot live like this any more.  I feel like I am going crazy. If you can help me please do I am desperate.  I live on extreme pain killers and the new doctor just gave me a new med. called Aciphex.  I took prevacid but it had no effect at all. This new med may be helping but I don't know exactly if it is.  Yesterday Oct. 13 I had another endoscopy and they took a biopsy of the stomac, and esophoges(?) and something else. I am desperate to find others with abdominal migraines for some advise or help. Please reply if you can.  Thank you for your time.
Eileen Endean
973-927-7564
New Jersey

[Veronica]

Mary,
I am not a doctor, however, I know elavil is prescribed
for the relief of mental depression.  Look it up in a
pdr book - their cheap at Walgreens.  I would not give
this medicine to my son or anybody.  very bad side effects.
I found your article because my boyfriend is suffering from
abdominal pain for the past 2 weeks.  We had gone to the
emergency room 3 times now and no ultrasound, x-ray, blood-work
can determine the cause.  I will search until I find a competent
doctor - not to mask the problem with any drug.  As you know all drugs have side effects.
Good Luck and best wishes to you.

[Loric914]

I have never heard of that.  I am a 37, female.  I have had fevers ranging from 99.4 - 101.2 every day for 2 years.  I have severe headaches, chills, sweats, dizziness, fatigue, nausea that goes from mild to extremely severe, diarrea, vomiting, and pain on and off in my upper to mid right quad area.  I can only describe it as "severe contractions" I sometimes get dirarreah with this.  The diarreah is pure yellow burning water pouring out of me.  I have lost 10 - 12 pounds in 1 - 2 days during this episode.  Then eventually after days or even weeks the pain subsides and I gain weight again.  I have gained 50 pounds in 6 months even though when I get sick like this I lose my appetite.  I also have the burbs and GERD.  I can barely work and take care of my little boy.  I have had ERCP's, CT's endoscopes, blood tests, urine tests, bowel tests, ultrasounds, several different doctors who are baffled.  How can anyone live like this?  I don't know for how much longer.  I'd like to know if your son or anyone has experienced any of this and what is being done.

[Sandra - I may know! reply sandrwj@full]

Hi Mary,

I found an old posting of yours on urq pain and wondering if you ever found what was causing it.  I am also emailing a copy of this to all the other people I can find on-line that have this problem.  I know this is long, but bare with me.  If you have time, let me know if this has helped you with a return email to ***@****

I had SEVERE upper-right quadrant (urq) pain for 4 months, and was reduced to taking 12 narcotic pain pills a day and giving my resignation at work.   However, I have just discovered what was causing it and I am awaiting my physician's call so I can tell him (I am home on a leave of absence to try to figure out what is wrong.)

I was taking Allegra D, which is a Histamine receptor antagonist.  Many allergy medications have the same H1 receptor antagonists as part of their mechanisms.  My thought is that some people who have urq pain are experiencing side effects of allergy medications with this type of antagonist.

Just last week, after 4 months of taking Allegra D and 4 months of extreme pain, I missed my Wednesday morning dose.  I went to work, took my narcotics for pain, and had a fair day.  That night, I took Allegra D again, and then again on Thursday morning.  I was "sicker than a dog" all day Thursday.  

Allegra D is meant to be taken twice a day, morning and evening.  However, after only 1 week on the medication, I kept forgetting to take the nightly dose and my sinuses were doing great so I just quit taking the evening dose.  This means I was only taking half of the prescribed medication with all these disastrous side effects!!

So on Friday morning, after being so sick Thursday, I forgot to take my meds again in the morning and I felt pretty good Friday.  Saturday was the beginning of my week off of work so I decided to sleep in, not take any meds, and just see what happened.  I ended up taking only 5 pain pills that day, and only 4 on Sunday.  Sunday afternoon I went to the pharmacist and asked for a printout of the medications I had taken in the past year.  I started Allegra D the first week of May, 2000 and had my first pain/vomiting attack 2 weeks later.  I asked the pharmacist what the half-life of the medication was (meaning how long it stays in the body) and she said it should be 80% eliminated in 3 days.  

As an FYI, my pain was CONSTANT after just 5 weeks of taking this medication.  The constant pain, now, Monday morning, is gone!  This is after three full days of being Allegra D free!  I still have a little discomfort after meals, but it is probably because my body is re-grouping and getting back to its normal processing.  My prayer, of course, is that I have no permanent damage as a result of taking this medication.

So, all this because "I feel your pain" - I know, it's not funny when you are still in pain.  But, feel free to print this out, take it to your doctor, request that s/he take you off all histamine antagonists and brave the allergies for a week or so and see what happens.  I wouldn't be surprised if even over-the-counter meds could cause the same thing.  Our bodies are all different so the severity of symptoms will vary with each.  But it is too easy just to quit taking allergy meds for a week and see if this eases the pain.

By the way, I am not in the medical profession, so this is not

[Linda Walker. Coffs Harbour. NSW Austr]

So interested in reading your articles.  My son Shayne is 26 and has just been diagnosed with cyclical vomiting syndrome.  He has been suffering for two and a half years-seen many doctor's, been admitted to 4 hospitals, where he spends upto 3 days on a drip.  It has been dreadful for him - doctors saying it was in his "mind" and giving him drugs for anxiety.  A few months ago one doctor refused to admit him to hospital - more or less saying it was "mental".   We knew otherwise!
Finally we got onto a Professor in Sydney a few weeks ago and "BINGO" CVS diagnosed.  We have found heaps of info and hope that he can now find some medication to help.  My Husband suffers from migraine, his brother, his sister  -  Their mother suffered from migraine as well.  Now  Shayne has been diagnosed with CVS.
We just hope that he can be helped in some way as this is happening every 2 weeks and lasting for 4-5 days.  He can't work and is studing at uni by correspondence, but cannot attend the residentials because of CVS.
Regards to all.    Linda

[Linda Walker. Coffs Harbour. NSW Austr]

So interested in reading your articles.  My son Shayne is 26 and has just been diagnosed with cyclical vomiting syndrome.  He has been suffering for two and a half years-seen many doctor's, been admitted to 4 hospitals, where he spends upto 3 days on a drip.  It has been dreadful for him - doctors saying it was in his "mind" and giving him drugs for anxiety.  A few months ago one doctor refused to admit him to hospital - more or less saying it was "mental".   We knew otherwise!
Finally got onto a Professor in Sydney a few weeks ago and BINGO CVS diagnosed.  We have found heaps of info and hope that he can now find some medication to help.  My Husband suffers from migraine, his brother, his sister  -  Their mother suffered from migraine as well.  Now  Shayne has been diagnosed with CVS.

[Jane Wendt]

My 14 year old granddaughter, JJ,  "may" have abdominal migraines.  The adolescent gyn ruled out hormones/menstrual difficulties yesterday.  JJ has severe lower stomach pains and faints.  She is unconcious several minutes, totally exhausted when she comes to, and very sore from pain for days.  The gyn does not know what the problem is but said it will fall in the very rare category.  She has made an appointment with a neuro specialist in 3 weeks, one of the things they will consider is abdominal migraines.  What are abdominal migraines and what is the treatment?  We are very concerned.

[Jane Wendt]

My 14 year old granddaughter, JJ,  "may" have abdominal migraines.  The adolescent gyn ruled out hormones/menstrual difficulties yesterday.  JJ has severe lower stomach pains and faints.  She is unconcious several minutes, totally exhausted when she comes to, and very sore from pain for days.  The gyn does not know what the problem is but said it will fall in the very rare category.  She has made an appointment with a neuro specialist in 3 weeks, one of the things they will consider is abdominal migraines.  What are abdominal migraines and what is the treatment?  We are very concerned.

[Linda]

I had a urodynamics test 6-28-00.  I had bladder tuck in 97.  I have had problems with pain in my stomach and urinating problems since then.  I am told I need another operation because the other operation was too tight.  Is there an alternative.  I have had so many different surgeries.  I was told for the last couple of years that I had interstial cystitis.  This doctor doesn't believe in that.  Please help me.  I am going for a second opinion.  Thanks, Linda B.

[Lynn]

My son started with the bouts of vomiting when he was 6 years old.  He started out vomiting every 6 months, now he's vomiting every 6 weeks and he's almost 10 years old.  Since  it was so infrequent at first we really chalked it up to eating too much or eating too much junk food.  I finally took him to a pediatric gastroenterologist 3 months ago.  He's almost positive my son's disorder is CVS.  He ran the ultrasound and labs and everything came back normal.  However after researching this rare disorder, my son seems lucky to have even an episode every 6 weeks.  It's like clock work, he wakes up 3 hrs. after going to bed with abdominal pain, vomits for about 10 minutes, and resumes a normal life.  He just had an episode last week.  He is otherwise very healthy.  He is currently on Periactin 2tsp. QD.  His episodes are the same as before the medication, I will discuss this with his Dr. on his second visit in June.  My Dr. said this can last through puberty.  Let's try and keep these replies going, because it's hard to find info on this syndrome.  My E-mail is ***@****.   Good luck everyone!!!!

[cbf]

See my post on Aloe Vera in the RUQ Pain thread. Also see

http://www.aloe-vera.org/

Eases Intestinal Problems

    Aloe vera juice can be effective for treating inflammatory bowel disease, according to a study in the Journal of Alternative Medicine.  Ten patients were given two ounces of aloe juice, three times daily, for seven days.  After one week, all patients were cured of diarrhea, four had improved bowel regularity, and three reported increased energy.

    Researchers concluded that aloe was able to rebalance the intestines by "regulating gastrointestinal pH while improving gastrointestinal motility, increasing stool specific gravity, and reducing populations of certain fecal microorganisms, including yeast."  Other studies have shown that aloe vera juice helps to detoxify the bowel, neutralize stomach acidity, and relieve constipation and gastric ulcers.

[joan]

My 15 year old daughter has had 2 years of pain & tests.  They just mentioned abdominal migraines.  We'll see - I HOPE this is the answer to OUR prayers.

[Mary to April]

April  thank you for the nice words and you will be in my prayers also.  I am the wrong person to give advice on this matter cause I myself is fighting to get my son the attention he needs.  We are military and the doctors do not like to be told they are wrong.  But luckly I found a MD at the base clinic that agreed with me and we are going for a second opioion on May 3 to the Childrens King Daughters in Va Beach here.  So hopefully we will have an end or beginning of what is wrong.  You keep at the doctors and keep going that is what I have had to do.  It is frustrating and I hope you get better April.

Mary

[april]

I am a twenty year old i've been having real bad stomach pains starting 26 months ago right before I got pregnant with my daughter. Anyways I can't eat anything with out getting really sick to my stomach i've only vomited once but i'm always in the bathroom with in ten min. after eating and its really loose. my sharp pains are usually in the upper part of my stomach and works there way down I can't touch it or put any pressure on it whens its like that. I can't even put any strain on my stomach to lift anything. Also when my stomach hurts my lower back starts to i don't know if thats related or n ot but I think it is. A few years ago I was told by my doctor that i had a pulled muscle in my lower back and I'm starting to think it bnever healed and its getting worse but i can't talke to any specialist around here because its not on any of my records i live in a very screwed up town. I'll kepp your son and your family in my prayers if you have any advice please share,
April

[kelley]

Thank you so much for the prayers, I will too prayer for your joseph. I hope all gets better and that doctors can help. I have done a lot of research on my experience and I have found a few things not related to the organs or functionality of my organs. I have found out about food allergies and low levels of hydrochloric acid. Below I have taken the time to look up some info and copy the addresses for you to go look at. Some of this may be of some help to you. The search engine I used was dogpile.com (which searchs every search engine). I hope you find as least one bit of information that may help you.

The last site is where you can put in your symptoms and it will come up with a possible conclusion for you. I did it myself and it came up with gall bladder and ulcer problems, which I have been tested for and either exist for me. But this may help you.

I wish you and your family the best of luck in finding a way to make your Joseph better. You will be in my prayers.

to find out about food allergies
http://www.foodallergy.org/patients.html
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-alrg1.html
http://www.food-allergy.org/
to find out about the levels of hydrochloric acid in your stomach
http://www.rheumatic.org/hcl.htm
http://www.nat-med.com/archives/hydroacid.htm
http://oak.cc.conncoll.edu/~rjcha/wells/articles/hypoclor.htm
to find out about stomach migraines
http://www.msgmyth.com/
http://www.abdominalpain.com/

[Kelley to Mary]

Thank you so much for the prayers, I will too prayer for your joseph. I hope all gets better and that doctors can help. I have done a lot of research on my experience and I have found a few things not related to the organs or functionality of my organs. I have found out about food allergies and low levels of hydrochloric acid. Below I have taken the time to look up some info and copy the addresses for you to go look at. Some of this may be of some help to you. The search engine I used was dogpile.com (which searchs every search engine). I hope you find as least one bit of information that may help you.

The last site is where you can put in your symptoms and it will come up with a possible conclusion for you. I did it myself and it came up with gall bladder and ulcer problems, which I have been tested for and either exist for me. But this may help you.

I wish you and your family the best of luck in finding a way to make your Joseph better. You will be in my prayers.

to find out about food allergies
http://www.foodallergy.org/patients.html
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-alrg1.html
http://www.food-allergy.org/
to find out about the levels of hydrochloric acid in your stomach
http://www.rheumatic.org/hcl.htm
http://www.nat-med.com/archives/hydroacid.htm
http://oak.cc.conncoll.edu/~rjcha/wells/articles/hypoclor.htm
to find out about stomach migraines
http://www.msgmyth.com/
http://www.abdominalpain.com/

[kelley]

Thank you so much for the prayers, I will too prayer for your joseph. I hope all gets better and that doctors can help. I have done a lot of research on my experience and I have found a few things not related to the organs or functionality of my organs. I have found out about food allergies and low levels of hydrochloric acid. Below I have taken the time to look up some info and copy the addresses for you to go look at. Some of this may be of some help to you. The search engine I used was dogpile.com (which searchs every search engine). I hope you find as least one bit of information that may help you.

The last site is where you can put in your symptoms and it will come up with a possible conclusion for you. I did it myself and it came up with gall bladder and ulcer problems, which I have been tested for and either exist for me. But this may help you.

I wish you and your family the best of luck in finding a way to make your Joseph better. You will be in my prayers.

to find out about food allergies
http://www.foodallergy.org/patients.html
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-alrg1.html
http://www.food-allergy.org/
to find out about the levels of hydrochloric acid in your stomach
http://www.rheumatic.org/hcl.htm
http://www.nat-med.com/archives/hydroacid.htm
http://oak.cc.conncoll.edu/~rjcha/wells/articles/hypoclor.htm
to find out about stomach migraines
http://www.msgmyth.com/
http://www.abdominalpain.com/

[Mary to Dee]

Thank you so much for your input and we are again going to a PEDS GI doctor and hopefully will get some answer.  Joseph's scope didn't show anything or the Hida scan and it a mystery to me what it could be.  But knowing that your daughter has gotten help is a ray of hope.  Thanks again and hope everything keeps going well and hopefully I will know what my Joseph has.

Mary

[Dee to Mary]

I have a 12 yr. old daughter who developed the same symptoms, but only vomited a couple of times over the course of 4 years.  Her symptoms where intense abdominal pain, doubling over, not wanting to eat because it made her feel worse, headache, nausea and with every "attack" her temperature would run 100+.  Then it would go back to normal when she felt better.  Well, she had an abdominal ultrasound, bloodwork which was questionable, but non-specific, and an upper GI.  Everything showed up as being normal.  We too were told that she was constipated.  She missed so many days of school because of the policy that she had to come home if her temp was 100 or above.  Finally after four years of this and trial antibiotics and acid reducers and stool softeners she saw a pediatric gastroenterologist.  He talked about abdominal migraines and thought that was most likely what she had, but wanted to do an EGD on her.  He also said the temp. she ran was not indicative of a fever, per se, but was the way her body reacted to the pain since she her temp would always return to normal shortly afterwards.  Well, she had the EGD and after the procedure he told me that everything looked good to him, that he didn't see any ulcers or any cause for her symptoms, but that she did have a small hernia (she was 10 yrs. old at the time!) and this was just an incidental finding and not to worry about it.  But, we still had to wait for the results of the biopsies.  His office called me a week later and said the biopsies showed that she had "severe, chronic inflammation of the stomach and duodenum" and she needed to go on a proton pump inhibitor such as Prevacid to give her stomach time to heal.  She took it for 30 days before she saw the doctor again and by that time she was SO MUCH BETTER.  The doctor explained that he's seen this before and what usually happens is that as some point in her life she probably had a virus that "settled in the stomach" and just kept it inflammed so that the normal stomach acid on top of the inflammation was creating the pain and nausea and she would have had no time to heal.  So by taking the Prevacid it stopped nearly all the acid production and gave her stomach time to heal.  She took it for about three months and has been a new child since.  So, the point of the story is that in her case it shot a hole in his abdominal migraine theory and it all came down to the biopsies' results.

Hope this helps.

Dee

[kelley]

I am 21 years old and have the same symptoms as the children mentioned. I have had all the tests, like, hida scan, stomach scope, ultrasound of all my organs, countless blood tests, and mine too, have come back all normal. I have pain in the upper stomach, right at the bottom of my rib cage. It also hurts to the touch. I get sicker when I eat foods that have fat in them, so I can only eat up to 2-3 grams of fat per meal. Now I am on a no solid food diet, which seems to help. I can only eat applesauce (natural-unsweetened), apple juice, jell-o(sugar free), fat-free yogurt, and steamed distilled water. I don't have harldy any pain with eating these foods. However, I have NO other symptoms (like dierreaha(sp?), constipation, etc). I have often wondered if this may be a food allergy? I don't know anymore. I have been to 5 different doctors and very good hospitals, where no one can seem to help. I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (which I do not have ANY of the symptoms of that).

I feel for you kids, as I have had this since november of 1999 and it is now April of 2000. I just want to eat pizza or macaroni and cheese.

Take care:)