Question:
Just had a VERY strange and scary experience with my almost-8-year-old
daughter last week.
Last Sunday she started complaining of eye pain, and by Monday afternoon
she said the vision in that eye was very blurred, and she was having
spells of total blindness in that eye. I took her to the pediatrician's
after-hour's clinic, and he sent us directly to the children's hospital in
Indianapolis. Numerous tests (CT, MRI, Visual Evoked Potential) found
nothing wrong, and the problem eventually cleared up. The final diagnosis
was, basically, 'stress.'
During all the testing I found myself wondering if there might be some
migraine connection, but the pediatric neuro who was dealing with our case
said no, that a migraine would cause flashing lights, NOT blindness or
blurring.
Anyway, we're still not entirely happy with the diagnosis, though we're
certainly happy that her vision is back to normal. But what was really
strange was that this morning I finally had a chance to meet with her
regular pediatrician. The hospital still hasn't sent down her records, so
I had to explain everything that had happened. The first question HE asked
me was "Is there a family history of migraine?" And when I said yes, HE
said that he thought a migraine varient might be a very possible
diagnosis.
Answer:
No it's not! It's not a "cause" of migraine either. I was told for
years that stress was why I had migraine.
A good friend of mine just had her 9 year old daughter dxed with
migraine and the doctor told her, "There must be something going on at
home, migraines are from too much stress." Needless to say, my friend
has been feeling very guilty. I tried to assure her that her child's
pain was not caused by stress in her enviroment.
I hope both Naomi and my friend's child can get good care and treatment
without the parents being blamed.
I am so sorry to hear of your daughter's experience. I lose vision in
one eye (either left orc right, so far never both). It sometimes starts
with eye pain, and sometimes does not. My migraines (head) didn't
develop until I was 18. I have also experienced flashing lights and
distortion of reality in my vision. Until the eye pain/blurry
vision/blindness I had not had aura with my migraines before. That was
the start of the whole aura experience for me. Stress may be a trigger
for migraine, but I am 100% positive it is not the cause. So far every
doctor I have seen for my migraines has told me that I must be under
too much stress to have the cycles I do. I hope that your daughter can
find good treatment without stress always being to blame.
Ok, the actual DX was 'conversion disorder', resulting from stress. And,
when I was talking to the pediatric neuro about the diagnosis, and
mentioned that my neuro thinks stress is a factor in MY migraines, his
respose was "of course it is!" ... which explains of course why, while
Shaina was in the hospital I had a mild migraine (easily explained by lack
of sleep) and then, once she was home and everything was fine, ended up
spending most of the weekend in bed with a miserable 3-day wonder. Stress.
