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

[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.