Migraine

Hi, Angelb,
I haven't posted for a while because my daughter has been taking care of that. However, since she hasn't seen this one yet I have to jump in. My 6 year old granddaughter, Lauren, was on Topamax for over a year, and she lost that year, maturity and education-wise. It did help break her terrible status migrainous, for which I am very grateful, but unless your niece's condition is VERY bad, or she has not responded to other things, I would be very cautious. Lauren is now on depakote and naldolol, along with a cingulair every day, and she is doing extremely well. The migraines can be controlled by ibuprofen if they are caught quickly, and she hasn't had to use the statins in a good while. Lauren is now catching up to where she should be in school and socially, thank heavens. We finally have our girl back. Now obviously, there are probably cases where Topamax is the answer to prayers, but I would just recommend asking the doctor to try some other things first. Lauren is now learning how to tell when she is getting a migraine, and knows to ask for medicine. She is even starting to distinguish between the tummy-ache that sometimes precedes a migraine and a tummy-ache for other reasons. Good luck to her parents and doctor in finding the right meds for your niece, and kudos to you for being pro-active.

Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs; do you mean triptans?

quote:

she hasn't had to use the statins in a good while

Pittypat means triptans, not statins. Pittypat is my mother. Lauren was on a rather large dose of topamax, and while I am glad she is off of it, for some it has done good things. The maturity issues my mother speaks of I blame on regression for the length of time and degree that Lauren was ill. She became ill at the age of 4 and had such a severe case that was an extremely rare presentation. The topamax seemed to be causing my daughter to not retain infomation she was learning. She also had some word finding issues, and more trouble experessing herself. She was on a high dose of both Topamax and depakot though. It is hard to know exactly what was responsible for what. I am just thankful she is off topamax and on a sifnificantly lower dose of depakote. She was able to wean off the topamax once we established her on Nadolol. We have also been gradually been weaning her off the Depakote. We are temporarily at a plateau until the spring is over b/c traditionally that is her worst time of year for chronic migraines. She also takes the Singulair every day. I am happy to report that she hasn't had any "sinificant" event yet this spring and this time last year she was already getting pretty sick. I hope that your neice gets the treatment she needs. It sounds like she has a loving Aunt to help her through and b/n you and her Mom you will both stay on top of the medication issues. Good luck, and I hope she responds well to treatment whatever the treatment is!!
Lynn

It sounds like Lauren is doing well on this regimine. Good luck with spring!

Hi all - Thank you for your continued contributions. It is really helpful. The more information, the better. I will let my SIL know there is additional input to this post, if she hasn't seen them already.

Michelle - your personal perspective on Topamax helps a lot. I hope all is going well with you now. I do think about you every so often and how grown up you have been through all of your own challenges.

Pittypat and Lynn - it's nice to hear that Lauren is catching up to where she should be. Topamax can be a tough medication, but it can also be effective - like you, I'm just a lot more leary about giving it to kids. As Michelle said, I think it's important that the kids know how to explain any side effects that they may have from this or any of these medications, but especially Topamax. My niece is still pretty functional and we'd all like to keep her that way. It sounds like Lauren has come a long way and is doing great. It's so nice to hear that! I think it's key that Lauren is starting to tell when a migraine is first coming on. I wish her the best in her continued success and I hope Lauren has an awesome spring.